Free amino acid determination in whole peanut seeds.

A method which circumvents the lengthy procedural steps for sample preparation in the analysis of free amino acids (FAA) in the peanut is described. Sample preparation consists of extracting a full fat meal with a lithium citrate sample buffer for 15 min. The sample is centrifuged and filtered with two Millipore filters in series. The resulting extract is analyzed "as is" for FAA via a physiological amino acid procedure. The method significantly reduces sample preparation time and eliminates the use of hazardous chemicals. It is well adapted to the analysis of large numbers of samples or samples of limited quantity. It should be applicable to the analysis of FAA in other oilseeds.