Determination of indole-3-acetic acid, tryptophan and other indoles in must and wine by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection.

ABSTRACT

The development of a robust method to analyse the content of tryptophan and of indole-3-acetic acid at the microgram per litre level in must and wine is necessary in order to study the formation of 2-aminoacetophenone and of other indole compounds causing the 'untypical ageing off-flavour'. The present paper discusses the development and validation of a reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method with fluorescence detection for the analysis of indole-3-acetic acid, tryptophan, tryptophol, indole and skatole in must and white wine. The required selectivity and sensitivity was gained through the solid-phase extraction on a polystyrene-based polymer column.