The hydrolysis of proteins by microwave energy

Abstract

Microwave energy, at manually-adjusted, partial power settings has been used to hydrolyse bovine serum albumin at 125 degrees C. Hydrolysis was complete within 2 h, except for valine and isoleucine which were completely liberated within 4 h. The aminoacid destruction was less than that observed at similar hydrolysis conditions with other methods and complete hydrolysis was achieved more rapidly. These results provide a basis for automating the process of amino-acid hydrolysis.