Abstract

In this study, crude protein was analyzed and compared using the Kjeldahl and Dumas method for cereals, meat, sea food, chemical samples and vegetable. The nine kinds of cereal, including white rice, were analyzed. In the result, the correlation coefficient of the Kjeldahl and the Dumas method indicated that there was no significant difference between them, showing 0.994 of it and 0.956 of p-value. Also, for the nine kinds of meat, five kinds of sea food, three kinds of chemical samples, four kinds of vegetable, there was little difference about the correlation coefficient of the Kjeldahl and the Dumas method, showing 0.9725, 0.9879, 0.9985 and 0.9873 of it and 0.947, 0.761, 0.997 and 0.727 of p-value, respectively. For the samples of meat, they were not fully homogenized, so the reproducibility of them was not good in the Dumas method, which is required to be analyzed in small size. However, when vegetables, which contain a lot of nitrates, are analyzed using Kjeldahl, they showed the lower reproducibility compared to the result of using Dumas because they are not completely decomposed in the Kjeldahl method. In the Dumas method, the samples should be homogenized because only 0.1 g sample is used. In short, neither of the Kjeldahl and Dumas methods are an accurate quantitative test because both of them do not directly analyze pure protein but measure the amount of protein based on analysis of nitrogen. Therefore, it is important of selecting the appropriate analysis method considering the characteristics of samples.