Determination of amino acids by precolumn derivatization with 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate and high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection

A precolumn derivatization method for the determination of amino acids using 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hyroxy-succinimidyl carbamate (AQC) followed by high-performance liquid chromatography is described. Ultraviolet detection was used for the assay of AQC derivatives of amino acids with the detection wavelength set at 248 nm. The reagent peak interference was minimized by optimizing the pH of the eluent and the gradient elution profile to improve the resolution between the reagent peak and amino acid derivatives. All nineteen amino acids were separated in 35 min with resolutions 1.6. The correlation coefficients of the calibration graphs for seventeen amino acids were fairly good (r 0.9999) at concentrations of 25–500 μM. The detection limits for all common amino acids including cystine and trytophan were at the range of 0.07–0.3 pmol. Good reproducibility and accuracy of the method were demonstrated by the determination of amino acids in three typical kinds of samples (protein, peptide and feed.) The average relative standard deviations for bovine serum albumin (BSA) and neuromedin were 0.86% and 1.36, respectively, and the average relative errors were 3.2% and 2.3%, respectively. The results of the analysis of feed hydrolysates agreed with those obtained by an ion-exchange method and the average recovery of the method for feed hydrolysates was 98%.