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Denaturation of Wool by Urea

Abstract

IN a letter to NATURE of Nov. 1, p. 685, I stated that saturated aqueous solutions of urea unmasked a sulphide in sheep's wool and also extracted a sulphide from the wool. These two statements were based on the observation that addition of a tenth volume of 20 per cent sodium nitroprusside solution, to suspensions of wool in such urea solutions, ten minutes after addition of a similar proportion of 10 per cent potassium cyanide solution (to reduce any —SS— to thiol groups), always led to the development, both in the wool and in the liquid, of a strong pink or magenta colour precisely like that of Arnold's nitroprusside reaction for organic thiol compounds, although in control tests wool not treated with urea developed only a feeble pink, and urea solutions which had not been in contact with wool developed none at all.

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RAMSDEN, W. Denaturation of Wool by Urea. Nature 127, 403–404 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/127403b0

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