 |
 
|
The accuracy and precision of amino acid analysis is often determined by the quality of protein hydrolysis. While state of the art HPLC instrumentation allows accurate analysis in less than 60 minutes, the widely used standard protocol requires heating samples in 6N HCl at 110 °C for 24 hours or more.
Milestone's Ethos HY Microwave-Assisted Vapor/Liquid Phase Hydrolysis System reduces hydrolysis time to 10–30 minutes, by processing samples at elevated temperatures (up to 200 °C). This effectively eliminates the bottleneck in amino acid analysis.
The protein hydrolysis system consists of a special reactor with connections for vacuum/inert gas purging, plus temperature measurement and control. Samples are introduced into vials and loaded into a Teflon rack. Hydrochloric acid is added to the reactor, where the vial rack is then placed. The reactor is sealed, air is removed, and nitrogen gas is purged into the reactor. Microwave heating produces acid vapor which contact and hydrolyze samples inside the vials.
Depending on sample type, hydrolysis time varies from 10–30 minutes for 8 or more samples. Multiple samples are processed with uniform temperature under inert, anaerobic conditions to prevent oxidative degradation of the amino acids.
Applications: Protein sequencing/structure studies; biomedical research; quality assurance of peptide hormones, protein therapeutic agents, dietary formulations, etc.
Types of samples: Isolated/purified proteins, synthetic peptides, food, infant and special dietary formulations, animal feed
Sample size range: micrograms to milligrams
Benefits
- Dramatically reduce hydrolysis times
- All samples are processed under the same temperature conditions, preventing variations between samples and assuring precision of results
- Hydrolysis is performed under inert, anaerobic conditions to prevent oxidative degradation of amino acids
- Hydrolysis is performed in convenient autosampler vials, eliminating sample transfer steps and reducing contamination and losses
- All sample vials are loaded in a single operation, with minimal handling required
- Reactor sample racks can be customized to accommodate your specific vials
- Using Milestone's EasyWAVE software, every parameter can be stored and recalled for complete data validation
Hydrolysis: Continue to fundamentals, technical details, resource library, or accessories.
General: Go to the Milestone front page, or send us an inquiry.