Dissolving Amino Acids in Scintillation Fluid

[Phil Calvert]

I hydrolyzed some protein with HCl and passed the hydrolyzate through a
small ion-exchange column.  The amino acids were then eluted with 4M
ammonium hydroxide.  When I tried mixing this with scintillation fluid
(Ultima Gold) it became very cloudy.  I figured it must be the ammonia, so
I blew it down to dryness with nitrogen.  Well, I still couldn't get it to
dissolve properly.  This makes sense because amino acids don't dissolve
very well in organic solvents, generally speaking.  Is there a trick to
this?  I was thinking that maybe using a co-solvent like DMSO, DMF,
pyridine, etc. might work, but this is just a hunch.  Any suggestions?

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!-----------Phil Calvert-----------!
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