Development of an HPLC-UV method for determination of taurine in infant formulae and breast milk

A rapid and accurate high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) procedure was proposed for routine and selective determination of taurine in infant formulas and breast milk. The sample preparation was simple, involving protein removal and filtration operations. Afterwards, taurine,was derivatised with o-phthalaldehyde/2-mercaptoethanol prior to injection onto a reversed phase column C-18 (S10ODS2). Isocratic elution was carried out using 0.05 M phosphate buffer pH 5.3/methanol (60:40) mixture. The effluent was monitored by a UV detector at 350 nm. A linear relationship was found between peak area and a concentration range of 1-70 mu g/mL. The detection limit was 0.3 mu g/mL. Effective separation and quantification was achieved in under six: minutes. No interference of other amino acids was observed.