Analysis of Amino Acids in Fermented Food and Drinks

Introduction

This Application News introduces examples of analyzing sugars in fermented food products using HPLC and focuses on amino acids. When analyzing amino acids with HPLC, it is important to select the optimal detection method to ensure high sensitivity and selectivity. In this regard, variations of pre- or post-column derivatization detection methods have been proposed, among which the post-column fluorescence derivatization method that uses o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) as the reaction reagent is particularly advantageous in sensitivity, selectivity, and operation simplicity. Thus this method is applied in a various fields, including the analysis of food products. This Application News introduces examples of analyzing amino acids in fermented foods and drinks using the OPA derivatization method with the Shimadzu amino acid analysis system.

February 13, 2004 GMT