AbstractsChemistry

The fundamental importance of a definite knowledge of the quantity of each amino acid yielded by the several food proteins justifies the expenditure of much effort in studying the analytical methods in order that these may be improved or their limitations definitely ascertained." "From the standpoint of physiological chemistry it is highly desirable that the present very limited knowledge of the protein substances of flesh be increased." The desirability of a knowledge of the amino acid content of food proteins has led to much experimentation looking towards a method that will yield quantitative results without involving excessive time or manipulation in the analysis. An important method was claborated by Van Slyke "enabling one to attain an insight into the composition of proteins by methods which require but small amounts of material and yield approximately quantitative results indicating the nature of all the nitrogenous products yielded by complete acid hydrolysis. The analysis is based not on the isolation of the amino acids but on determinations of their characteristic chemical groups." The present paper describes the results of an attempt to apply the method devised by Van Slyke to the determination of the amino acid content of food proteins without a preliminary separation of the individual proteins of the material.