Cereal Chem 55:204 - 213.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Effect of Alkaline Processing of Corn on Its Amino Acids.

J. Sanderson, J. S. Wall, G. L. Donaldson, and J. F. Cavins. Copyright 1978 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

Alkaline treatment of corn to prepare tortilla flour (masa) or hominy results in losses of the amino acids arginine and cystine. Laboratory-prepared masa and hominy and commercial masa and tortillas contained the amino acid lysinoalanine. The masa, tortillas, and hominy also contained lanthionine and ornithine, amino acids derived from alkaline breakdown of cystine and arginine. A new chromatographic procedure separates tryptophan, lysinoalanine, ornithine, and lysine on a single column of the amino acid analyzer. The analyzer permits study of major alkaline degradation products of amino acids of food proteins in conjunction with a column that separates lanthionine.