High-performance liquid chromatography of biogenic amines, derivatized with 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate.

A procedure was elaborated for the analysis of three biogenic amines posing a considerable health hazard. The method takes advantage of the characteristics of the 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate (FMOC) derivative, namely specificity, stability and compatibility for either fluorescence or UV-absorbance detection. The FMOC-tyramine derivative was probably adsorbed to labware when acetone served as the solvent for FMOC. Methanol, substituted for acetone, removed this problem. Excellent linearity was obtained with standard solutions of tyramine, tryptamine and phenylethylamine. Meat samples, spiked with the mentioned amines, also showed good linearity. Perchloric acid was chosen for deproteinization, as potassium perchlorate may be eliminated on neutralization. Histamine failed to react with FMOC or was not detected under the test conditions.

Apparent amino acid absorption from feather meal by chicks.

The apparent absorption values of individual amino acids from two samples of feather meal (FM) were determined in the lower ileum of chicks fed on diets containing magnesium ferrite as a marker. The average absorption values for FM amino acids were low, approximately 0.50, as compared with approximately 0.85 for soya bean, used as a control. Values for individual amino acids from FM differed distinctly, ranging from 0.20 to 0.70. Low values were obtained for aspartic acid, histidine, lysine, glutamic acid and cystine. An indication of the low absorption of the previously-mentioned amino acids was obtained by analysing the amino acid composition of the FM residues undigested by pepsin or pancreatin. The reasons for testing the apparent rather than the true absorption are discussed.