Application of Water-Soluble Polymers for Extraction Separation of Amino Acids of Various Structures

This article actualizes the task of developing new methods for extraction separation of amino acids for the analysis and purification of target components in the production of food supplements, pharmaceuticals, agricultural products and cosmetics; it also presents the extraction separation results for binary mixtures of histidine, proline and methionine using water-soluble homo- and co-polimers with various molecular weight values. We found that with increasing molecular weight of polymers and copolymers, the values of the extraction characteristics are expectedly reduced. The rate of formation of the two-phase system ''water-soluble polymer-water-salt solution of amino acid'' is largely influenced by the molecular weight of the extractant: As the intrinsic viscosity value M is increasedη the amount of polymer required for the formation of a heterogeneous system in the presence of a salting-out agent decreases. The influence of the ratio of the aqueous organic phases on the efficiency of the amino acid extraction separation was studied. The degrees of extraction and the separation factors in the methionine-proline and histidine-proline systems were calculated. The amino acids were quantitatively determined using the spectrophotometric method by intrinsic light absorption in the UV region of the spectrum. To improve the efficiency of the amino acids separation, we used the systems additionally containing chloride ions, which promote complexing. Amino acid extraction separation is carried out through the use of environmentally friendly materials, which makes the implementation of the developed methods safe. Two-phase aqueous systems based on water-soluble polymers most fully satisfy the requirements for extraction systems.