Abstract
IN an earlier publication1 a new sensitive method for the detection of small amounts of damage to human hair was reported. The method involves counting the numbers of cuticular and cortical cells in the liquid after treating the hair under standard conditions with papain/bisulphite solution. When the ratio of cuticle cells to cortical cells is low, the hair is assumed to have been damaged in some way. Soxhlet extraction of the hair with ethanol increases the rate of breakdown, but ether, benzene and many other non-polar solvents do not affect the ratio. It was suggested that a protective substance soluble in alcohol but not in non-polar solvents exists in the hair which maintains it intact during papain digestion. This protective substance has now been isolated from ethanol extracts and identified as a fatty acid/protein complex.
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References
Holmes, A. W., J. Text. Inst., 50, 422 (1959).
Barron, E. J., and Hanahan, D. J., J. Biol. Chem., 231, 493 (1958).
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HOLMES, A. A Fatty Acid / Protein Complex in Human Hair. Nature 189, 923 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/189923a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/189923a0
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