Implementing stepwise solvent elution in sequential injection chromatography for fluorimetric determination of intracellular free amino acids in the microalgae Tetraselmis gracilis

The concept of sequential injection chromatography (SIC) was exploited to automate the fluorimetric determination of amino acids after pre-column derivatization with o-phthaldialdehyde (OPA) in presence of 2-mercaptoethanol (2MCE) using a reverse phase monolithic C₁₈ stationary phase. The method is low-priced and based on five steps of isocratic elutions. The first step employs the mixture methanol: tetrahydrofuran: 10 mmol L⁻¹ phosphate buffer (pH 7.2) at the volumetric ratio of 8:1:91; the other steps use methanol: 10 mmol L⁻¹ phosphate buffer (pH 7.2) at volumetric ratios of 20:80, 35:65, 50:50 and 65:35. At a flow rate of 10 μL s⁻¹ a 25 mm long-column was able to separate aspartic acid (Asp), glutamic acid (Glu), asparagine (Asn), serine (Ser), glutamine (Gln), glycine (Gly), threonine (Thr), citruline (Ctr), arginine (Arg), alanine (Ala), tyrosine (Tyr), phenylalanine (Phe), ornithine (Orn) and lysine (Lys) with resolution >1.2 as well as methionine (Met) and valine (Val) with resolution of 0.6. Under these conditions isoleucine (Ile) and leucine (Leu) co-eluted. The entire cycle of amino acids derivatization, chromatographic separation and column conditioning at the end of separation lasted 25 min. At a flow rate of 40 μL s⁻¹ such time was reduced to 10 min at the cost of resolution worsening for the pairs Ctr/Arg and Orn/Lys. The detection limits varied from 0.092 μmol L⁻¹ for Tyr to 0.51 μmol L⁻¹ for Orn. The method was successfully applied to the determination of intracellular free amino acids in the green alga Tetraselmis gracilis during a period of seven days of cultivation. Samples spiked with known amounts of amino acids resulted in recoveries between 94 and 112%.     

High-performance liquid chromatography with sequential injection for online precolumn derivatization of some heavy metals

HPLC was coupled with sequential injection (SI) for simultaneous analyses of some heavy metals, including Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Fe(II). 2-(5-Nitro-2-pyridylazo)-5-[N-propyl-N-(3-sulfopropyl)amino]phenol (nitro-PAPS) was employed as a derivatizing reagent for sensitive spectrophotometric detection by online precolumn derivatization. The SI system offers an automated handling of sample and reagent, online precolumn derivatization, and propulsion of derivatives to the HPLC injection loop. The metal-nitro-PAPS complexes were separated on a C(18)-muBondapak column (3.9x300 mm(2)). Using the proposed SI-HPLC system, determination of four metal ions by means of nitro-PAPS complexes was achieved within 13 min in which the parallel of derivatization and separation were processed at the same time. Linear calibration graphs were obtained in the ranges of 0.005-0.250 mg/L for Cu(II), 0.007-1.000 mg/L for Co(II), 0.005-0.075 mg/L for Ni(II), and 0.005-0.100 mg/L for Fe(II). The system provides means for automation with good precision and minimizing error in solution handling with the RSD of less than 6%. The detection limits obtained were 2 microg/L for Cu(II) and Co(II), and 1 microg/L for Ni(II) and Fe(II). The method was successfully applied for the determination of metal ions in various samples, including milk powder for infant, mineral supplements, local wines, and drinking water.     

Automated precolumn derivatization system for analyzing physiological amino acids by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry

An automated method for high‐throughput amino acid analysis, using precolumn derivatization high‐performance liquid chromatography/electrospray mass spectrometry (HPLC/ESI‐MS), was developed and evaluated. The precolumn derivatization step was performed in the reaction port of a home‐built auto‐sampler system. Amino acids were derivatized with 3‐aminopyridyl‐N‐hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate, and a 3 μm Wakosil‐II 3C8‐100HG column (100 × 2.1 mm i.d.) was used for separation. To achieve a 13 min cycle for each sample, the derivatization and separation steps were performed in parallel. The results of the method evaluation, including the linearity, and the intra‐ and inter‐precision, were sufficient to measure physiological amino acids in human plasma samples. The relative standard deviations of typical amino acids in actual human plasma samples were below 10%. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chirality determination of unusual amino acids using precolumn derivatization and liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Unusual amino acids such as beta-methoxytyrosine (beta-MeOTyr), allo-threonine (allo-Thr) and allo-isoleucine (allo-Ile) were derivatized with N-alpha-(2,4-dinitro-5-fluorophenyl)-L-alaninamide (FDAA), 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-acetyl-beta-D-glucopyranosyl isothiocyanate (GITC), (S)-N-(4-nitrophenoxycarbonyl)phenylalanine methoxyethyl ester (S-NIFE), or o-phthalaldehyde/isobutyryl-L-cysteine (OPA-IBLC), and then separated via reversed-phase high-performance chromatography followed by UV and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry detection. FDAA generally showed the highest enantioselectivity but the lowest sensitivity among the chiral derivatizing agents (CDAs) investigated. The detection limit of FDAA-derivatized amino acids was in the low picomolar range. Although the enantioselectivity of FDAA derivatives was generally quite high, its selectivity among beta-MeOTyr isomers was poor. The best separation of beta-MeOTyr stereoisomers was achieved with S-NIFE. Due to the complex relationships between the investigated CDAs, stereochemical analyses using a combination of two or more of the CDAs gave the most reliable results for a given separation problem. In general, the methods described are selective and reliable, and are being applied to the analysis of unusual amino acids as they occur in marine peptides.     

High-performance liquid chromatographic method for determination of amino acids by precolumn derivatization with 4-chloro-3,5-dinitrobenzotrifluoride

This work presents an high-performance liquid chromatography method for the determination of amino acids after precolumn derivatization with 4-chloro-3,5-dinitrobenzotrifluoride (CNBF) which can readily react with both primary and secondary amines. The precolumn derivatization conditions, including the CNBF concentration, reaction pH, temperature and reaction time were investigated for method optimization. In pH 9.0 borate buffer, the reaction of amino acids with CNBF was carried out at 60 °C for 30 min, the optimized concentration of CNBF was 70 mmol L⁻¹ and the molar ratio of amino acids to CNBF was 1:5.25. The chromatographic separation of 19 amino acids derivatives was performed on a Kromasil ODS C₁₈ column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) with good reproducibility, and ultraviolet detection was applied at 260 nm. The mobile phase was a mixture of phase A (acetonitrile) and phase B (acetate buffer, acetonitrile, triethylamine; 82.8:17:0.2, pH 4.9), and the flow rate was 0.4 mL min⁻¹. The separation of all the labeled amino acids was achieved within 45 min at room temperature by gradient elution mode. The method linearity, calculated for each amino acid, had a correlation coefficient higher than 0.9979, in concentrations ranging from 9.60 to 3330.00 μmol L⁻¹. The detection limits of amino acids were 2.40-6.50 μmol L⁻¹, at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. The proposed method was applied for the determination of amino acids in beer with recoveries of 97.0-103.9% and relative standard deviations of 2.62-4.22%, respectively. This method showed good accuracy and repeatability that can be used for the quantification of amino acids in real samples.     

Evaluation of conditions for the HPLC determination of plasma amino acids using precolumn derivatization

For the determination of free amino acids in plasma, the conditions for precolumn derivatization of the amino acids and the chromatographic separation were examined. The isoindole products, formed by the reaction of the primary amino acids with orthophthalaldehyde (OPA), were readily separated by RPLC and detected spectrofluorometrically using an excitation wave-length of 300 nm and an emission cut-off filter of 440 nm. Since the sensitivity of this method permits determination of amino acids in the femtomole range, the analysis can be performed on samples as small as 10 μl of filtered plasma or serum. The separation is achieved in approximately 35 minutes with good precision for the majority of the amino acids.     

Method for on-line derivatization and separation of aspartic acid enantiomer in pharmaceuticals application by the coupling of flow injection with micellar electrokinetic chromatography

A novel, easy and accurate capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupled with flow injection (FI) method for the separation and determination of aspartic acid (Asp) enantiomers by on-line derivatization had been developed, and it had been applied to the real sample for the first time. The derivatization reagents were o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) and mercaptoethanol (ME), which were obtained easily, the chiral selector was beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD), the micellar chemical was sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and the modifier was methanol. By on-line derivatization, aspartic acid enantiomers were automatically and reproducibly converted to the ultraviolet (UV)-absorbing diastereoisomer derivates, which were separated by micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC). According to the factors affecting the separation and sensitivity of aspartic acid enantiomer and other amino acids in the real sample, the pH value and concentration of the buffer, the concentration of beta-CD and SDS, the volume percentage of the methanol (v/v) in the buffer, the applied voltage and the conversion time were selected as the investigating variates. Under the investigated separation conditions, D-aspartic acid (D-Asp), L-aspartic acid (L-Asp) and other four amino acids achieved the baseline separation in not only the standard mixture of amino acids but also the real sample (Compound Amino Acid Injection (6AA)). The repeatability (defined as relative standard deviation (RSD), n = 5) was 4.0% and 4.0% with peak area evaluation, and 4.2% and 3.7% with peak height evaluation for D-Asp and L-Asp in the real sample. Recovery at added standard levels of 1.0, 3.0 and 6.0 mM was 92%, 104% and 109%, respectively.     

Continuous on-line derivatization and determination of amino acids by a microfluidic capillary electrophoresis system with a continuous sample introduction interface

An automatic, rapid and continuous on-line derivatization system coupled to microfluidic capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the determination of amino acids using o-phthaldialdehyde/N-acetyl-l-cysteine (OPA/NAC) as the derivative agents has been developed. By on-line derivatization, amino acids were automatically and reproducibly converted to the UV-absorbing derivatives, which were separated by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE). Optimization of derivatization and separation condition was carried out to achieve both good sensitivity and separation efficiency. The separation could be achieved within 4 min and sample throughput rate can reach up to 16 h⁻¹. The repeatability (defined as relative standard deviation, R.S.D.) was 2.56, 2.85, 3.24 and 3.60% with peak area evaluation and 2.93, 3.12, 4.20 and 4.91% with peak height evaluation for arginine (Arg), phenylalanine (Phe), serine (Ser) and glycine (Gly), respectively. The limits of detection (S/N=3) were 10.46, 13.14, 34.39 and 44.79 μmol/l for Arg, Phe, Ser and Gly, respectively. Major advantages of the proposed method include improved precision and efficient automation of the derivatization by the FI system and the enhanced sampling frequencies by the combined FI-CE system.     

Exploiting sequential injection analysis with lab-at-valve (LAV) approach for on-line liquid-liquid micro-extraction spectrophotometry

Sequential injection analysis (SIA) with lab-at-valve (LAV) approach for on-line liquid-liquid micro-extraction has been exploited. Sample, reagent and organic solvent were sequentially aspirated into a coil attached to a central port of a conventional multiposition selection valve, where the extraction process was performed. The aqueous and organic phases were separated in a conical separating chamber LAV unit attached at one port of the valve. The organic phase containing extracted product was then monitored spectrophotometrically. The system offers a novel alternative on-line automated extraction in a micro-scale and has been successfully demonstrated for the assays of diphenhydramine hydrochloride (DPHH) in pharmaceutical preparations and anionic surfactant in water samples.     

柱前衍生化-超高效液相色谱法快速测定酱油中的18种氨基酸

建立了一种6-氨基喹啉基-N-羟基琥珀酰亚氨基甲酸酯(AQC)柱前衍生,超高效液相色谱(UPLC)对酱油中18种氨基酸进行快速分离检测的方法。采用BEH C18色谱柱分离,在260 nm波长下检测,以乙酸铵-乙酸-乙腈-水和乙腈-乙酸为流动相,将流动相梯度和流速梯度相结合,在12 min内实现了18种氨基酸衍生物的分离。方法的线性回归系数(r2)均大于0.999,检出限为0.032～0.12 mg/L,日间相对标准偏差(RSD)为0.72%～4.05%,在酱油中18种氨基酸的加标回收率为90.2%～103.7%。该方法前处理过程简单,分离时间短,是检测酱油中氨基酸的有效手段,可用于酱油的质量评定。     

在线自动化柱前衍生-高效液相色谱法测定食品中组胺的研究

建立了在线自动化柱前衍生.高效液相色谱法测定食品中组胺的新方法.通过对测定过程中各个影响因素进行优化,如自动化衍生程序的设定,衍生试剂的用量,衍生体系pH影响等,确立了适宜的测定条件.在该条件下,对于组胺的检出限为0.01 μg/mL,在0.05～100 λg/mL范围内,线性关系良好(r2＞0.999).通过对样品基质进行加标,检出限为0.20 mg/kg.将所建立的方法应用于金枪鱼罐头,烟熏鲣鱼,冻鲭鱼等样品中组胺的测定,测得的组胺含量为0.59～167 mg/kg,加标回收率均大于97%,测定值的相对标准偏差均小于5%.所建立的方法适用于大量样品的常规分析测定.     

Flow injection on-line dialysis coupled to high performance liquid chromatography for the determination of some organic acids in wine

A combined system of flow injection on-line dialysis sample pretreatment and high performance liquid chromatographic separation/detection (FID-HPLC) was developed for simultaneous determination of six organic acids (tartaric, malic, lactic, acetic, citric and succinic acids). A sample or mixed standard solution (400 μL) was injected into a donor stream (water) of FID system and was pushed further through a dialysis cell, while an acceptor solution (water) was held in the opposite side of the dialysis membrane. The dialysate containing organic acids in the acceptor solution was then flowed to an injection loop of the HPLC valve, where it was further injected into the HPLC system and analysed under normal HPLC conditions, using a reversed-phase (C₁₈) analytical column and UV detection (210 nm). The order of elution was tartaric, malic, lactic, acetic, citric and succinic acids with the analysis time of 8 min. The FID system could be operated in parallel with HPLC separation, providing sample throughput of 7.5 h⁻¹. Dialysis efficiencies of six organic acids were in range of 4.6-9.5%. Calibration graphs for all the mentioned organic acids were linear over the range of 250-7500 mg L⁻¹. Precisions for all the organic acids were within 5.4%. The proposed system was successfully applied for analysis of some Thai wines. By spiking wine samples with mixed acid standard solutions, the percentage recoveries in range of 84-104 were found. This system has advantages of fast and high degrees of automation for dialysis sample pretreatment, on-line sample separation and dilution, good clean-up for prolongation of life-time of the HPLC column and low consumption of chemicals and materials.     

Selective determination of amino acids using flow injection analysis coupled with chemiluminescence detection

The determination of the amino acids proline, histidine, tyrosine, arginine, phenylalanine and tryptophan using flow injection analysis (FIA) with chemiluminescence detection is described. Proline was the only amino acid to exhibit chemiluminescence with the tris(2,2-bipyridyl)ruthenium(III) reaction at pH 10. While, histidine was found to selectively enhance the reaction of luminol with Mn(II) salts in a basic medium. Acidic potassium permanganate chemiluminescence was able to selectively determine tyrosine at pH 6.75. Low pressure separations using a C18 guard column allowed the simultaneous determination of tyrosine and tryptophan or phenylalanine and tryptophan with acidic potassium permanganate and copper(II)-amino acid-hydrogen peroxide chemiluminescence, respectively. Precision for each method was less than 3.9% (R.S.D.) for five replicates of a standard (1×10⁻⁵ M) and the detection limits ranged between 4×10⁻⁹ and 7×10⁻⁶ M. Preliminary investigations revealed that the methodology developed was able to selectively determine the individual amino acids in an equimolar mixture of the 20 naturally occurring amino acids.     

Fluorescence optosensing implemented with sequential injection analysis: a novel strategy for the determination of labetalol

The coupling of sequential injection analysis and optosensing has been developed for the first time. It has been applied to the determination of labetalol in both pharmaceuticals and urine samples, with the analytical signal (native fluorescence) being monitored directly on sensing zone microbeads. The solid support used was the nonionic silica gel C₁₈, using 20% methanol–water (v:v) as a carrier. By using a 1.5-ml sample volume , we achieved a detection limit of 3.3 ng ml⁻¹. This sensitivity allowed the determination of the compound in urine samples. A recovery study was carried out at the labetalol levels usually found in urine after pharmaceuticals administration, and recovery percentages close to 100% were obtained. The relative standard deviation was 3.4% for 100 ng ml⁻¹ labetalol. No pretreatment was needed for urine samples, only an appropriate dilution, therefore minimizing the time required per sample analysis. In addition, the determination of the analyte was also carried out in one pharmaceutical, with a satisfactory result being obtained.     

Simple and rapid quantitative determination of lysinoalanine and protein hydrolysate amino acids by high-performance liquid chromatography after derivatization with dansyl chloride

Summary A rapid and simple method for the determination of both lysinoalanine (LAL) and protein hydrolysate amino acids after derivatization with dansyl chloride (5-dimethylaminoaphtalene-1sulfonyl chloride) and separation with RP-HPLC (UV detection) is presented. LAL is analysed in less than 15 minutes and complete separation of 22 amino acids is achieved in less than 30 minutes using single linear gradients of solvents (phosphate buffer and acetonitrile). Quantitative results obtained by HPLC compare well with results of the ion-exchange chromatography (amino acid analyser). The importance of the duration of the derivatization reaction and of the excess of reagent is discussed. As examples, the results of the determination of LAL in two samples of base treated α-casein and 22 samples of soy protein and the results of the analysis of amino acids in two balanced diet mixtures are presented. Presented at the 15th International Symposium on Chromatography, Nürnberg, October 1984     

Miniaturization of solid-phase reactors for on-line post-column derivatization in narrow-bore liquid chromatography

Summary The use of solid-phase reactors for post-column derivatization in narrow-bore HPLC (1.0mm i.d. analytical columns) is evaluated. Two systems are described, viz. for the determination of N-methylcarbamate pesticides and for that of urea and ammonia. The solid-phase reactor is packed with a strong anion exchange resin and urease immobilized on silica, respectively, to effect the catalytic hydrolysis of the solutes eluting from the analytical column. In both systems, the hydrolysis product is reacted with o-phthalaldehyde followed by fluorescence monitoring. Analytical data are presented and band broadening from various parts of the reaction detector system is discussed. An on-line trace enrichment procedure via a micro precolumn is descried for the trace level determination of N-methylcaramates in surface water samples.     

Postcolumn derivatization of amino acids using reaction flow chromatography columns with fluorescence detection: A fast new approach to selective derivatization techniques

Reaction flow (RF) chromatography with fluorescamine reagent and fluorescence detection (FLD) was used for the analysis of amino acids. The performance of RF chromatography was tested against several optimized conventional postcolumn derivatization (PCD) methods. RF columns achieved greater sensitivity compared to conventional PCD methods, without the need for reaction loops, which resulted in more efficient separations. The RF-PCD method also achieved limits of detection (LOD) from the low picomole to subnanomole range. The calibration data of the RF-PCD technique yielded R²?≥?0.99 and % relative standard deviation in peak areas ranging from 0.34% to 5%. Through reaction flow chromatography, multiplexed detection was also achieved allowing the monitoring and analysis of derivatized and nonderivatized flow streams simultaneously.     

柱前衍生-超高效液相色谱法测定鱼卵中的17种氨基酸

建立了一种快速、灵敏的柱前衍生-超高效液相色谱-光电二极管阵列检测器(UPLC-PDA)测定史氏鲟(Acipenser schrenckii)、达氏鳇(Huso dauricus)和小体鲟(Acipenser ruthenus)鱼卵中17种氨基酸含量的方法。采用6.0 mol/L的盐酸水解鱼卵,提取液经低压浓缩、碱性中和,然后以6-氨基喹啉-N-羟基琥珀酰亚胺基氨基甲酸酯(AQC)为衍生试剂在pH 8.8硼酸盐缓冲溶液中衍生化。采用的色谱分离柱为Waters BEH C18柱(100 mm×2.1 mm, 1.7 μm),流动相为30 mmol/L乙酸铵水溶液(pH 3.5)和乙腈(含0.15%(v/v)甲酸及30 mmol/L乙酸铵),梯度洗脱,流速为0.7 mL/min,在260 nm波长下检测。17种氨基酸在5.0～1000 μmol/L浓度范围内,峰面积与浓度之间的线性关系良好(r2≥0.9950)。以标准加入法测定回收率和相对标准偏差(RSD),在100、500、750 μmol/L的添加水平下,17种氨基酸的平均回收率为75.4%～107.3%, RSD为2.19%～12.3%。以3倍信噪比(S/N＞3)计方法的检出限,17种氨基酸的检出限为0.94～4.04 μmol/L。应用该方法检测了3种鲟鳇鱼鱼卵中的17种氨基酸含量。结果表明,该方法简便、准确、快速、可靠。     

Phanquinone as a suitable derivatization reagent in micellar electrokinetic chromatography and HPLC analysis of amino acids

Phanquinone (chemically: 4,7-phenanthroline-5,6-dione) was applied as an original precolumn derivatization reagent for amino acids followed by separation using MEKC with UV detection (240 nm). The derivatization reaction was carried out at 68 degrees C in the presence of aqueous phosphate buffer (pH 8.0) and it was found to be complete after 30 min. Twelve derivatized standard amino acids were separated in about 22 min under MEKC conditions using sodium cholate (250 mM) as the surfactant in phosphate buffer (20 mM, pH 9.0). The developed method was validated for the analysis of D,L-phosphoserine (D,L-p-Ser) and L-glutamine (L-Gln); good linearity (r > 0.999) was achieved in the calibration range of 0.25-2.5 micromol/mL. The sensitivity of the MEKC method (LOD 0.1 micromol/mL; LOQ 0.25 micromol/mL, RSD% <5.0%, n = 3) was found to be adequate for quantitation of amino acids in pharmaceuticals. Quantitative applications of the validated MEKC method were carried out by the analysis of commercially available oral polyaminoacid formulations (tablets and extemporaneous solutions) containing L-Gln and D,L-p-Ser; the obtained results were found to be in agreement with those from a validated reference RP-HPLC method.