Chapter 13: Derivatization Strategies for the Determination of Biogenic Amines with Chromatographic Techniques

Biogenic amines (BAs) are formed in food by microorganisms, causing side effects in humans such as nausea, increase in blood pressure and headache. Different analytical techniques, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC), are used for the analysis of BAs. However, the analysis of BAs is complicated due to its presence at low concentration and lack of ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) active group in the structure. Therefore, they are derivatized which reduces their polarities by introducing different groups into their structure. Different derivatizing reagents are discussed here along with their optimum reaction conditions. Derivatization reactions provide stability to the target analytes and help to increase the sensitivity of the methods. Although, many derivatization schemes are discussed in this report, dansyl chloride (DNS-Cl) is the most commonly used derivatizing reagent for HPLC analysis due to its efficiency and good stability. GC applications are the alternative to HPLC for BA analysis, but the list of reagents (e.g., isobutyl chloroformate and pentafluoro benzaldehyde) are much fewer compared with those of HPLC. The advantages and limitations of the various derivatization reagents are also discussed.