Description
General description
Urea is a colourless organic compound, without any odour. It is easily soluble in water.
Application
Used for the denaturation of proteins and as a mild solubilization agent for insoluble or denatured proteins. Useful for renaturing proteins from samples already denatured with 6 M guanidine chloride such as inclusion bodies. May be used with guanidine hydrochloride and dithiothreitrol (DTT) in the refolding of denatured proteins into their native or active form.
Urea has been used:
to adjust the urea nitrogen concentration to a preferred range in blood reservoir for evaluating the dialyzer urea clearance
to prepare standards to measure urea synthesis
to prepare standards for blood urea nitrogen assay
Biochem/physiol Actions
Urea participates in the metabolism of nitrogenous substances. It serves as a nitrogen source, when used in fertilizers. Urea is used in manufacturing chemical compounds. It is widely used in the agricultural industry as a fertilizer as well as an animal feed additive, which is used as a nitrogen supplement in animal husbandry. Urea has adverse effects on seed germination, seedling growth and early plant growth in soil.
