New aspects of the simultaneous analysis of amino acids and amines as their o-phthaldialdehyde derivatives by high-performance liquid chromatography

A new high-performance liquid chromatography method is described for the simultaneous quantitation of amino acids and amines for 37 compounds (20 amino acids + 17 amines), as their o-phthaldialdehyde (OPA)-3-mercaptopropionic acid derivatives, within 53 min. Based on previously documented stoichiometric and reaction mechanism studies, derivatizations have been carried out with the OPA-SH-group = 1:50 containing reagents. Reliability and reproducibility of analyses have been considerably improved. Average reproducibility data in a wide concentration range of derivatives had RSD < or = 3.4%.