[Principles of the hydrolysis of bound purine and pyrimidine bases in foods and program-controlled calculation of nucleic acid content].

In order to determine the amount of combined purine and pyrimidine bases in foods we investigated the chemical fundamentals of their hydrolytic digestion it was demonstrated that the digestion mixture used, containing trifluoracetic- and formic acids, protected the purine bases during hydrolysis from oxidative degradation due to carbon monoxide formation. Further, a time-saving computer-program was developed and presented. This program allows, depending on the purine composition, the calculation of the corresponding nucleic acids, the nucleotides and the purine-nitrogen-content of the food.