Monitoring Organic Acids during Fermentation with Shim-pack™ Fast-OA High-Speed Organic Acid Analytical Column

Introduction

Organic acids are attracting attention not only as taste and flavor components in food, but also as raw materials for pharmaceuticals and chemical products, and have been analyzed in various fields. Organic acid analysis by HPLC has multiple separation modes such as ion exclusion, ion exchange, and reverse phase, and there are options for detection such as UV method and conductivity detection method. Ion-exclusion columns and post-column pH-buffered electrical conductivity detection are often used because they selectively detect organic acids while avoiding the matrix effects from the sample. However, the long analysis times are a problem. There is demand for shorter analysis times, especially in bio-production research and intestinal microbiota analysis, which involve analyzing only a limited number of target components. Furthermore, in the monitoring of fermentation conditions, it is necessary to quickly determine the amount of organic acids produced as metabolites by microorganisms in order to control the cultivation in accordance with their growth conditions. Here we report a case of monitoring organic acid content during fermentation using an ion exclusion column, Shim-pack Fast-OA.

September 3, 2019 GMT