Guanidine hydrochloride

Guanidine hydrochloride (CAS 50-01-1), also known as guanidinium chloride or GuHCl, is a strong protein denaturant and chaotropic salt used across pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and life science manufacturing.

It disrupts hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions in proteins, making it a critical reagent wherever controlled protein unfolding or solubilization is required for industrial processes.

In biopharmaceutical manufacturing, GuHCl is used to solubilize inclusion bodies during recombinant protein production, enabling downstream refolding into active drug substances for therapeutic use.

Protein denaturation studies and urea-alternative unfolding assays rely on concentrated GuHCl solutions as the standard chaotropic agent. In nucleic acid extraction workflows, it lyses cells and inactivates RNases.

This protects RNA and DNA integrity during isolation procedures. Cosmetic formulators use it at low concentrations as a conditioning and preservation-supporting agent in hair and scalp treatments.

Guanidine hydrochloride is supplied as a white crystalline powder or granules. Standard commercial grades include high-purity reagent-grade and molecular biology-grade specifications suited to sensitive bioprocessing.

Pharmaceutical-grade material meeting USP or Ph.Eur. standards is available for GMP-regulated manufacturing environments. These high-quality standards ensure consistency and safety in production.