Pep"tone (?), n. [Gr. &?; cooked.] (Physiol. Chem.) (a) The soluble and diffusible substance or substances into which albuminous portions of the food are transformed by the action of the gastric and pancreatic juices. Peptones are also formed from albuminous matter by the action of boiling water and boiling dilute acids. (b) Collectively, in a broader sense, all the products resulting from the solution of albuminous matter in either gastric or pancreatic juice. In this case, however, intermediate products (albumose bodies), such as antialbumose, hemialbumose, etc., are mixed with the true peptones. Also termed albuminose.

&fist; Pure peptones are of three kinds, amphopeptone, antipeptone, and hemipeptone, and, unlike the albumose bodies, are not precipitated by saturating their solutions with ammonium sulphate.