Separation of canavanine and canaline by high performance liquid chromatography.

ABSTRACT

The plant amino acid canavanine and its hydrolytic product canaline were successfully separated and identified by Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (RP-HPLC). This procedure was used to demonstrate the arginase-mediated cleavage of canavanine to yield canaline and urea, and the subsequent formation of a Schiff's base complex between canaline and pyridoxal phosphate. Both aforementioned reactions were demonstrated by RP-HPLC.