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Hydrolyzed protein
Can anyone teach me how to make hydrolyzed protein from wheat or corn? I’d like to know the raw materials involved and the quantities involved to make about 1L of hydrolyzed protein. Can I use HCl and NaOH? If yes what concentration?
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7 Replies
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1 liter/kilo? That’s a lot of material. I think my first question would be - what purpose are you planning on using this for, and do you have the resources available to make sure that the hydrolyzed protein is free from harmful impurities and heavy metals?
As cosmetic chemists, we almost always think that it’s a Very Bad Idea(tm) to make your own raw materials. Why? Because we rely on our raw material suppliers to provide us with safe, reliable, well-characterized and tested raw materials. If this wasn’t the case, we would each have to do all of the testing ourselves, which would waste a lot of money, or face the risk of lawsuits over unsafe ingredients, which no-one (except for lawyers) wants to happen. -
Actually I would like to try hydrolysing carob beans. As I understand it the process involves grinding the material up, dissolving in NaOH, then neutralising it with acid. But what strengths to use? Ah. There lies the rub.
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Proteins are better hydrolyzed with enzymes. It is a less harsh and more consistent process. You can use HCL and then neutralize with NaOH, but you end up with a lot of salt in the hydrolyzate that in many cases can be a problem.
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Thanks Ruben. Since papain dissolves protein, would that be a good choice? But how to get rid of the excess papain afterwards?
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@Belassi
You deactivate the enzyme by increasing the temperature to the denaturation temperatures. After that, you normally don’t separate the denatured enzyme from the hydrolyzate. It could be done, but it is too expensive. Besides, the level of enzyme is very low.Papain is very powerful. I used one called Liquipanol quite a bit to hydrolyze animal protein (not for cosmetic applications). Vegetable proteins are a little bit more difficult to hydrolyze, but it is possible to do it. Depending on the degree of hydrolysis you would like to attain, you may need more than one enzyme.
You need heat to around 55-60oC for the papain to start working. Once you finish your hydrolysis, if I remember correctly, you heat to 80oC to deactivate the enzyme.
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Great! Thanks Ruben. I can’t resist experimenting and I have about a kilo of liquid papain in stock…
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