Rapid Acid Hydrolysis of Albumin in a Microwave Oven

Microwave-oven-assisted acid hydrolysis of albumin in 7.5 M HCl was carried out in only 12 min in a pressurized Teflon reactor using a power of 390 W. The effect of experimental conditions on the hydrolysis of albumin were evaluated and the results obtained were compared with those found by conventional hydrolysis, using in both cases the ninhydrin reaction for the spectrophotometric determination of free amino acids. A chromatographic study showed that microwave oven heating did not change the nature of the amino acids obtained from the hydrolysis of the protein.