| Abstract: | Humic substances isolated from water, sediment, and soil were characterized by applying elemental analysis, spectroscopic analysis, and gelchromatographic molecular size distribution. In addition, the amounts and pattern of enzymatically released amino acids were determined. Depending on the origin of the humic substances, the percentage of released amino acid nitrogen related to the total nitrogen was in the range of 0.4 to 26.7%. The samples particularly differed in the content of leucine und tyrosine. The total amount of released amino acids was compared with the results obtained from the other characterization methods. This approach indicated that humic substances with a high content of hydrolysable amino acids had high N/C and O/C ratios and low molecular sizes. Beside this, the absorption of these substances in the UV and visible wavelength range was quite low, while the measured ratios of SAK(254)/SAK(436) showed high values. This work leads to the conclusion that the extent of enzymatically releasable amino acids is not only dependant on the nitrogen content of humic substances. Other physical and chemical properties have to be considered for the understanding of the results obtained by the described biochemical characterization method. |
