Some new methods for the preparation of agarose

✍ Scribed by Stellan Hjertén

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1971
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 881 KB
• Volume: 61
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1873-3778
• DOI: 10.1016/s0021-9673(00)92385-9

✦ Synopsis

The possibikty of preparing agarose from agar by extraction, batchwise ion exchange, and electrophoresis has been investigated. The efficiency of each of these purification steps has been established by analyzing the product obtained for sulfur content and for adsorption of the basic substances crystal violet and cytochrome C, both of which are strongly adsorbed to agar and many other anticonvection agents. These analyses also indicate that the sulfur content is not a reliable indicator of the adsorption capacity of agarose.

These investigations showed that a combination of extraction (or, although somewhat more laborious, electrophoresis) with an ion-exchange step gives an agarose of an extremely low sulfur content (0.04-o.oG %). This agarose exhibits no adsorption of crystal violet or cytochrome C.

The author has previously reported that chromatography* of agar yields an agarose showing low electroendosmosis and adsorption, but the low capacity of the method made it unsuitable for preparative purposes. This problem has been circumvented by the introduction of the above extraction step.