ASSAY OF MALT β-GLUCANASE USING AZO-BARLEY GLUCAN: AN IMPROVED PRECIPITANT

Abstract
A procedure recently described for the assay of malt β-glucanase, which employs a dye-labelled and chemically-modified barley β-glucan substrate, has been improved by changing the precipitant solution used to terminate the reaction. The new precipitant solution contains 0·4% (w/v) zinc acetate and 4% (w/v) sodium acetate dissolved in 80% (v/v) aqueous methyl cellosolve. With this precipitant the procedure can be directly applied to the assay of cellulase activity, and with minor modification, to the assay of lichenase activity.