Abstract: | A method for the separation of basic hydroxycinnamic amides and hydroxycinnamic acids by high-performance liquid chromatography is described. N-p-Coumaryl-, N-caffeyl- and N-ferulylpetrescine, N-p-coumryl-, N-caffeyl- and N-ferulylspermidine and p-coumaric, caffeic, ferulic and sinapic acids were chromatographed on a μBondapak C18 reversed-phase column (particle size 9 μm) with different methanol—water gradients as the mobile phase. It is possible with this high-resolution and reproducible method to assay biological samples containing mre that 10−5 M of hydroxycinnamic amides, using either p-coumaric or ferulic acid as the internal standard: this is demonstrated for tobacco extracts. |