Analysis of biogenic amines in fish muscles by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

QUE-KING WEI, TONG-RONG CHEN* AND CHIA-WEN FANG

Department of Food Nutrition , China Junior College of Medical Technology, Tainan, Taiwan, R.O.C. *Department of Food Industry, National Chia-Yi Institute of Agriculture, Chia-Yi, Taiwan, R.O.C.

ABSTRACT

   A HPLC procedure has been developed for the analysis of seven biogenic amines in fish. Inertsil 5 ODS-2 column with UV detection at 254nm and acetonitrile-methanol-water (3:10:3,V/V/V) were used. The method is applicable to the quantification of amines with satisfactory sensitivity, selectivity and precision. It was found that tuna contains cadaverine ;grasscarp contains spermine ; swordfish contains cadaverine and spermine; barred spanish mackerel and rayfish each contain putrescine, cadaverine and spermine. Biogenic amines contents of pacific saury and salmon were higher than other fishes. In storage tests, fresh swordfish was shown to contain spermine and the longer the storage, the higher in the amount of purtrescine, cadaverine, histamine and spermidine. The order of producing rate of biogenic amine is histamine >cadaverine > spermidine > putrescine.

Key words: HPLC, biogenic amines, fish muscles