A simple method for the preparation of agarose.

A.GAROSE, tile niain compollent of agar, has recently become of great interest in biologic research. This interest is due to the superior meellanical qualities of agarose-gels at low concentrations aI1d to their neutral character. Agarose has found applicatioll as a useful matrix for immunodiffusion (1), electrophoresis (2-4) and as an overlay for VjruS titrations with the ‘‘plaque tecilIliqile’’ (5, u). Different methods have been (lescribed to separate the ileutral polysaccharide agarose from the agaropectin which contains sulfate and other charged groups. Araki (7) acetylated agar and extracted the acetylated agarose with chloroform, from which it was then precipitated with 1)etIolell1ll ether. .i)eacetylation with an alcoholic potassium hydroxide solution, followed by careful neutralization with acetic acid gave an agarose precipitate. Hjerten (8) prepared agarose by precipitatnlg tile agaropectin from hot agar solution with cetylpyridinium chloride. A cheaper and more simple nlethod was developed by Russel et al (9) who prepared agarose fronl hot agar solutions by fractional precipitation with poiyethyleneglycol. This technic was further improved by Hegenauer and Nace (io). We tried to prepare purified aga rose by adsorption of the charged agaropectin from a hot agar solution with an insoluble adsorbent.