Hemoglobin, Myoglobin, and Total Pigments in Beef and Chicken Muscles: Chromatographic Determination

Abstract

ABSTRACT Spectrophotometric determinations of myoglobin (Mb) and hemoglobin (Hb) in bovine longissimus and psoas and chicken thigh and drumstick muscles were compared using size exclusion (SE) and hydrophobic interaction (HI) high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Detection limit (61 ng) and standard deviation for total pigments were lower with SE than with HI. Bovine and chicken Mb and Hb coeluted with SE‐HPLC. Mb and Hb from bovine muscles were separated using HI‐HPLC, but pigment concentrations in chicken muscles were below detection limits of the HI‐HPLC method. The amounts of Mb and Hb in longissimus and psoas muscles differed with individual cattle.