Peptonized

Peptonized is an adjective describing a substance that has undergone peptonization, the proteolytic digestion of proteins into soluble peptides and amino acids. This can be achieved by proteolytic enzymes such as pepsin, trypsin, pancreatin, or by chemical hydrolysis. In biochemistry, peptonization is used to generate proteolyzed products known as peptones, which are commonly employed as sources of nitrogen and nutrients in culture media.

In microbiology, the term often refers to media or solutions prepared by digesting proteins to provide readily usable nutrients for growth. For example, peptonized agar or peptonized broth denotes media containing peptones derived from protein hydrolysis. Peptonized milk is milk that has been treated to hydrolyze casein, increasing the concentration of peptides and amino acids; such preparations have historically been used in studies of proteolytic activity or as a nutrient medium in various assays.

Peptonization can influence the physical properties of a material, such as clarity and viscosity, depending on the extent of hydrolysis. The word derives from peptone and the suffix -ize; in older scientific literature, "peptonized" may appear in descriptions of nutrient preparations, diagnostic media, or experimental reagents used to supply soluble peptide nutrients.