High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Separation and Fluorescent Measurement of Taurine, a Key Amino Acid

Abstract

A rapid, sensitive method for the analysis of taurine in oyster hemolymph (blood) has been developed. Highly fluorescent, substituted isoindoles formed by the reaction of taurine and other amino acids with o-phthaldialdehyde/ethanethiol reagent were separated on a reverse phase, high performance liquid chromatographic column. It was necessary to carefully control the concentration of the sodium ion in the phosphate buffer in order to maintain an adequate resolution of both taurine and tyrosine from β-alanine and arginine. Calibration plots of the fluorescent taurine derivative were linear over 2.5 orders of magnitude with a limit of detection of 0.10 nanomoles per ml of oyster hemolymph.