Fractionation of wheat gliadins by counter-current distribution using an organic two-phase system

A liquid liquid two-phase system based on N,N-dimethylformamide and the two polymers, poly(ethyleneglycol) and Ficoll, useful for partitioning of hydrophobic proteins, has been developed. The system has been applied to a counter-current distribution process in 56 steps for analysing the heterogeneity of proteins extracted with N,N-dimethylformamide from wheat flour. The counter-current distribution patterns of proteins, extracted from eight kinds of wheat, have been analysed. The minimum number of hypothetical proteins necessary to describe the patterns was found to be seven. The relative amount of these hypothetical components varied among the wheats.