SEMIQUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS BY THIN‐LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY (TLC) OF BIOGENIC AMINES IN DRIED, SALTED AND CANNED FISH PRODUCTS

Abstract

Abstract A thin‐layer chromatography (TLC) method was tested using dried, salted and canned fish products for the identification and semiquantification of biogenic amines: histamine, cadaverine, putrescine, tryptamine, and tyramine. The solvent system was acetone: NH 4 OH (95:5) on a precoated silica gel plate, and the developing reagent was 0.2% ninhydrin with 2% acetic acid in methanol. The TLC results were compared with liquid chromatography (LC). For LC levels between 6–9 mg%, TLC gave close to 5 mg%, and for samples with biogenic amines of 10–60 mg%, LC and TLC results are more similar to each other. In case of upper values (> 60 mg%) other methods have to be used or sample dilution is suggested. The proposed TLC was suitable to estimate: cadaverine (5‐40 mg%), and tyramine (10‐20 mg%) in dried salted, and cadaverine (10‐20 mg%), tryptamine (5‐10 mg%), and histamine (10‐60 mg%) in canned fish. With this TLC methodology is possible to screen samples with these amines levels, for routine quality control in laboratories.