Analysis and quantification of ether lipids by chromatographic methods.

Chromatographic methods, especially thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) are widely used in investigations of the occurrence, molecular structure and metabolism of ether lipids. The application of such techniques to structural analysis and quantification, in combination with methods for the degradation and derivatization of ether lipids, is discussed.     

Analysis of cyanobacterial pigments and proteins by electrophoretic and chromatographic methods

Cyanobacteria are a diverse and ubiquitous group of prokaryotes with several unifying features. Amongst these is the macromolecular structure known as the phycobilisome, which is composed of water-soluble phycobiliproteins covalently bound by linker peptides or proteins in a configuration designed to optimize energy transfer to the photosynthetic reaction center of the organism. Phycobiliproteins are highly fluorescent by virtue of their covalently bound, linear tetrapyrrole chromophores known as bilins. Analysis of these prosthetic pigments, along with other non-water soluble pigments, such as the chlorophylls and carotenoids, can provide insight into microbial diversity. The effects of environmental growth conditions and stresses can also be probed by measuring pigment and protein concentrations. This review will focus, therefore, on applications of various chromatographic and electrophoretic methods for the analysis of cyanobacterial pigment and protein constituents. Although the greatest emphasis will be placed on the measurement of bilins and phycobiliproteins, this review will also consider other pigments and proteins important to cyanobacterial growth and survival, such as chlorophyll a, carotenoids, ectoenzymes, linker and membrane proteins, and extracellular proteins.     

Quantification of triacylglycerol regioisomers in oils and fat using different mass spectrometric and liquid chromatographic methods

The regioisomers (sn-ABA/sn-AAB) of four triacylglycerols (TAGs), 18:2/18:2/18:1 (LLO), 18:2/18:1/18:1 (LOO), 16:0/18:1/18:1 (POO), and 16:0/16:0/18:1 (PPO), were quantified in lard, rapeseed oil, and sunflower seed oil by three different mass spectrometric methods using liquid chromatography (LC) and two different mass spectrometers. The ionization methods used were positive ion atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI), positive ion electrospray ionization (ESI), and negative ion chemical ionization (NICI) with ammonia as the reagent gas. The LC/APCI-MS results with two different instrumentation types, LC/ESI-MS/MS and direct inlet ammonia NICI-MS/MS, were compared. The LC/APCI-MS method is based on the preferential formation of diacylglycerol (DAG) fragment ions during ionization by loss of sn-1/3 fatty acids from [M+H]+ ions. Similar formation of the DAG ions from [M+NH4]+ ions by collision-induced dissociation (CID) in the LC/ESI-MS/MS method and the [M-H--RCOOH-100]- ions from [M-H]- ions by CID in the direct inlet ammonia NICI-MS/MS method is observed. These methods were found to be useful and reliable in determining the regioisomeric structure of TAGs. No statistically significant differences were found between the results obtained with these methods. For LLO, LOO, and POO the proportions of sn-ABA isomer calculated from the results from all four methods were in rapeseed oil 7.7 +/- 6.5, 57.9 +/- 3.3, and 4.5 +/- 6.1%, respectively, and in sunflower seed oil 12.2 +/- 6.9, 34.0 +/- 5.2, and 1.4 +/- 2.8%, respectively. The proportions of ABA of POO and PPO in lard were 95.3 +/- 3.2 and 4.9 +/- 5.6%, respectively. This study also proved that the LC/APCI-MS/MS method examined is not applicable in the quantification of TAG regioisomers because the formation of DAG ions is not clearly dependent on the positional distribution of the fatty acids.     

Normal-phase high performance liquid chromatographic separation and characterization of short- and long-chain triacylglycerols

Summary Short- and long-chain triacylglycerols (SLCT) are a family of lipids prepared by chemical or enzymatic interesterification of triacetin, tripropionin and/or tributyrin, and long-chain (C_16!18) hydrogenated vegetable oils. In this study, a normal-phase cyanopropyl high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed for the separation and quantification of SLCT. The method is capable of separating SLCT mixtures, free fatty acids and the neutral lipid classes of saturated long-chain triacylglycerols, diacylglycerols and monoacylglycerols. To characterize the specific SLCT classes, a normal-phase HPLC procedure using a non-modified silica column was developed to separate the SLCT into individual isomers based on total carbon number and position of fatty acids on the glycerol backbone. Online coupling with a mass detector (LC/MS) allowed the identification of the individual triacylglycerol structures.     

Determination of glyphosate and its biodegradation products by chromatographic methods

Conditions were selected for the separation of the herbicide glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine) and products of its microbiological utilization as N-acylated derivatives by ion-exchange liquid chromatography. The order of the elution of compounds on a Repro-Gel H column with UV detection correlates with their structures. The detection limits of the derivatives (wavelength 210 nm) are as follows (ng): glyphosate, 30; glycine and sarcosine, 20 and 43, respectively; aminomethylphosphonic acid, 45. The detection limit of methylphosphonic acid is 14 μg. Glyphosate and its biodegradation products were separated by thin-layer chromatography on plates with silica gel in the system isopropanol-5% aqueous ammonia solution (1: 1).     

Pretreatment of body fluids by preparative isotachophoresis prior to chromatographic analysis

Summary This study focusses attention on the possibilities of preparative isotachophoresis (ITP) as a sample pretreatment technique prior to liquid chromatographic (HPLC) analysis. The increased demand for accurate and less time consuming analysis necessitates that sample pretreatment procedures, should be develop in parallel with other improvements (e. g. in detection and separation) which can be observed. The preparation isotachophoresis was performed on gel slabs and the zones of interest were subsequently cut out, desorbed and the desorbates analyzed by HPLC. In this study satisfactory recoveries of between 85–90% with a standard deviation of 1–5% were observed for blank experiments. For spiked serum and urine samples the recoveries in general decreased with decreasing spiked drug concentrations. These observations are discussed in this paper.     

Quantitative analysis of some preservatives in pharmaceutical formulations by different chromatographic methods

Different chromatographic methods for determination of methyl hydroxybenzoate and propyl hydroxybenzoate in pharmaceutical formulations are compared. Procedures for HPTLC, HPLC and GC/MS are given.     

Analysis of novel imidazoles from isolated perfused rabbit heart by two high-performance liquid chromatographic methods.

The paper reports two analytical high-performance liquid chromatographic methods to detect and quantify cardiac-derived histidyl derivatives. Method A relies on relative hydrophobicities as a basis of separation. Method B is an ion-pairing method in which the compounds are eluted in an entirely different order. Fractions collected from method A have been co-eluted in admixture in method B with authentic reference compounds. Thus the existence of the following imidazole ring-containing compounds derived from heart have been confirmed: N-acetylhistidine, N-acetyl-1-methylhistidine, N-acetylcarnosine, N-acetylhomocarnosine, homocarnosine, anserine, carnosine, balenine. Compounds were found in both tissue samples and perfusates.     

Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic separation of tert.-butyl hydroperoxide oxidation products of unsaturated triacylglycerols

Triacylglycerols containing monounsaturated fatty acids are known to be relatively resistant to autoxidation and require long periods of exposure to dilute oxidants. Use of concentrated solutions of synthetic hydroperoxides, however, yields in addition to the hydroperoxides also unidentified oxidation by-products. In the present study we have employed synthetic triacylglycerols containing one (18:0/18:1/18:0 and 18:1/16:0/16:0) and two (18:0/18:0/18:2 and 18:1/18:1/18:0) double bonds per molecule to reinvestigate the formation of oxotriacylglycerols using tert.-butyl hydroperoxide as an oxidant. Reversed-phase HPLC was used to separate and tentatively identify the oxidation products based on relative retention times of standards and the estimated elution factors for functional groups and their positional distribution. Hydroperoxides, diepoxides and hydroxides were the major components of the oxidation mixtures (50-95% of total). Previously unidentified peroxide-bridged tert.-butyl adducts were present in significant amounts (5-50% of total oxidation products) in all preparations. In several instances more than one functional group was present on a single fatty chain. The tentative reversed-phase chromatographic identification of the adducts was confirmed by determination of the molecular mass of each component by on-line LC with electrospray MS. The oxidation products were quantified by HPLC with light scattering detection.     

Olive oil quantification of edible vegetable oil blends using triacylglycerols chromatographic fingerprints and chemometric tools

The present work studies the effectiveness of the use of triacylglycerols (TAGs) for the quantification of olive oil in blends with vegetable oils. The determinations were obtained using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to a Charged Aerosol Detector (CAD), in combination with Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression and using interval PLS (iPLS) for variable selection.Results revealed that PLS models can predict olive oil concentrations with reasonable errors. Variable selection through iPLS did not improve predictions significantly, but revealed the chemical information important in the chromatogram to quantify olive oil in vegetable oil blends.     

Analysis of triacylglycerols on porous graphitic carbon by high temperature liquid chromatography

The retention behaviour of several triacylglycerols (TAGs) and fats on Hypercarb, a porous graphitic carbon column (PGC), was investigated in liquid chromatography (LC) under isocratic elution mode with an evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD). Mixtures of chloroform/isopropanol were selected as mobile phase for a suitable retention time to study the influence of temperature. The retention was different between PGC and non-aqueous reversed phase liquid chromatography (NARP-LC) on octadecyl phase. The retention of TAGs was investigated in the interval 30-70 degrees C. Retention was greatly affected by temperature: it decreases as the column temperature increases. Selectivity of TAGs was also slightly influenced by the temperature. Moreover, this chromatographic method is compatible with a mass spectrometer (MS) detector by using atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation (APCI): same fingerprints of cocoa butter and shea butter were obtained with LC-ELSD and LC-APCI-MS. These preliminary results showed that the PGC column could be suitable to separate quickly triacylglycerols in high temperature conditions coupled with ELSD or MS detector.     

Selectivity versus specificity in chromatographic analytical methods

  Analytical chemists should be aware of the differences between selectivity and specificity. Few analytical methods, including the chromatographic analytical methods, are truly specific. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) recommends that specificity is the ultimate of selectivity, therefore, analysts should promote this concept and aim to achieve highly selective analytical methods. Received: 30 September 1999 / Accepted: 17 January 2000     

Comparison of chromatographic methods for hydrogen isotope separation by Pd beds

Comparison among three chromatographic separation methods, i.e. hydrogen-displacement chromatography, self-displacement chromatography and frontal chromatography, is made in an experimental way using several gas mixtures of hydrogen and deuterium. There is small difference in the height equivalent to a theoretical plate (HETP) based on the plate theory among the three chromatographic techniques. The HETP value for the self-displacement chromatography is 3.9 cm, and that for the frontal or H2-displacement chromatography is 3.0 cm at the same flow-rate. The self-displacement chromatography is more useful for the separation of a small amount of deuterium or tritium from other hydrogen isotopes under a moderate recovery ratio. Since the frontal chromatography uses no other gas than the sample, it is more convenient for the separation of deuterium from natural hydrogen even though a lower recovery ratio.     

Separation of oestrogen conjugates in urine and synthetic mixtures by high-performance liquid chromatographic methods

The analytical and clinical advantages that would be expected to follow the adoption by clinical laboratories of a routine HPLC method for the partial oestriol conjugate profiling of human pregnancy urine are outlined in the Introduction. In order to ascertain if a candidate method for this assay has yet been devised, a complete survey of the published HPLC separations of oestrogen conjugate mixtures is presented, in tabular form, and discussed. From this survey it is concluded that a number of good separations of these steroids from synthetic mixtures have already been published. The third and final section of the paper contains the results of a detailed examination of those papers in which separation of oestriol conjugates present in pregnancy urine specimens have been reported. The paper is concluded with the recommendation that the method of Dixon, Lukha and Scott should be further investigated as a candidate method for adoption by clinical laboratories for the purpose of oestriol conjugate profiling.     

Determination of pesticides in fruit and fruit juices by chromatographic methods. An overview

In order to combat a variety of pests, pesticides are widely used in fruits. Several extraction procedures (liquid extraction, single drop microextraction, microwave-assisted extraction, pressurized liquid extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, solid-phase extraction, solid-phase microextraction, matrix solid-phase dispersion, and stir bar sorptive extraction) have been reported to determine pesticide residues in fruits and fruit juices. The significant change in recent years is the introduction of the Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe (QuEChERS) methods in these matrices analysis. A combination of techniques reported the use of new extraction methods and chromatography to provide better quantitative recoveries at low levels. The use of mass spectrometric detectors in combination with liquid and gas chromatography has played a vital role to solve many problems related to food safety. The main attention in this review is on the achievements that have been possible because of the progress in extraction methods and the latest advances and novelties in mass spectrometry, and how these progresses have influenced the best control of food, allowing for an increase in the food safety and quality standards.