Charge-transfer chromatographic study on the interaction of amino acids with ethoxylated stearic acid surfactants.

The interaction of amino acids with ethoxylated stearic acid nonionic surfactants was studied by charge-transfer reversed-phase thin-layer chromatography and the relative strength of interaction was calculated. In the majority of cases the surfactant has a negligible effect on the hydrophobicity of amino acids. Only the binding of Asn, Cys, Gln, Leu, Lys, Met, Nle, Phe, Ser, Trp and Tyr to the surfactants was observed, however, the strength of interaction was fairly low. Stepwise regression analysis proved that the electronic parameters of the amino acids have the highest impact on the strength of interaction. This finding supports the hypothesis that the binding of ethoxylated stearic acid nonionic surfactants to proteins involves more than one amino acid residues and that the hydrophilic forces have a considerable impact on the interaction.