Polyglutamic acid


Polyglutamic acid is a polymer of the amino acid glutamic acid. Gamma PGA - the form where the peptide bonds are between the amino group of GA and the carboxyl group at the end of the GA side chain - is a major constituent of the Japanese food nattō. Gamma PGA is formed by bacterial fermentation.
Gamma PGA has a wide number of potential uses ranging from food and medicine to water treatment.
The other isomer, poly-α-glutamic acid is being used as a drug delivery system in cancer treatment and research is underway for its application in a treatment of type I diabetes and its potential use in the production of an AIDS vaccine.

Heavy metal removal

G-PGA covalently incorporated into microfiltration membranes via attachment to their membrane pore surfaces exhibited super-high
heavy metal sorption ability. Bhattacharyya et al.
G-PGA was found to bind and efficiently remove.99.8% of lead ions from water via a suitable low-pressure ultrafiltration technique. Inbaraj et al.