Separation of amino-acid and peptide mixtures

The two purposes of separation of amino-acid and peptide mixtures are either at the preparative level, to isolate one or more individual components from the mixture for further study or at the analytical level, to identify and to determine the relative amounts of some or all of the components. Most of the routine studies, conducted daily to determine the amino-acid content of clinical and botanical samples in hundreds of laboratories around the world, are at the analytical level. However, many of the research studies are at the preparative level an example of this is the identification of crosslinking amino acids from proteins, through their isolation from protein hydrolysates, from physiological specimens for medical investigations, or purely to gain new knowledge. 

For peptide mixtures, the objectives are the same as for amino acids. Separation methods provide pure samples for study from natural sources, but analytical methods include the monitoring of peptide synthesis from the points of view both of chemical and of stereochemical purity. 

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