Interaction of amino acids and gelatin with urea.

ABSTRACT

The pH titration of nine amino acids (glycine, proline, valine, serine, glutamine, tryptophan, arginine, histidine and aspartic acid) in presence of urea in the concentration range 1-8 mole dm-3 has been performed. The results support suppression of the first dissociation constant (K1) of the amino acids and acceptance of H+ ions by the amide forming uronium ion (UH+). The second dissociation constant (K2) of the amino acids is affected relatively weakly by urea. Quantitative evaluation of different species existing in solution and the degree of dissociation of the acids as well as the degree of binding of H+ ion to the amide have been made. It has been found that the polarity of the aqueous-urea medium does not straight forwardly correlate with the altered pK1 of the amino acids. Urea can also affect the pH-titration behaviour of gelatin with an increase of the intrinsic pK of the acidic groups of the protein by 0.45 unit.