DETERMINATION OF WINE AMINES BY HPLC USING AUTOMATED PRECOLUMN DERIVATIZATION WITH ORTHO-PHTHALALDEHYDE AND FLUORESCENCE DETECTION

A method was developed for the determination of the most important wine amines, histamine, tyramine, putrescine, cadaverine, isoamylamine und beta-phenethylamine in wine. Amine derivatives were formed automatically by drawing 1-mu-l of wine, 1-mu-l of o-phthalaldehyde reagent and 5-mu-l of pH 10.4 buffer solution into an injection needle. The reactants were mixed by drawing the liquid back and forth in the needle for 2 min. The derivatives were determined by liquid chromatography using the reversed-phase technique and fluorescence detection. The detection limit for amines ranged from 0.006 to 0.05 mg/L and the determination limit for amines in wine ranged from 0.5 to 1 mg/L, depending on the amine. The total time required by the analysis is 30 min.