Analysis of amines in plant materials

Biogenic amines are conveniently divided into aliphatic monoamines, aliphatic di- and polyamines and aromatic amines. These compounds are shown to fulfill an array of roles in cellular metabolism. Thus, amines are needed for growth and development and their metabolism appears to be coordinated with the cell cycle. Di- and polyamines, among which are putrescine, spermidine and spermine, are ubiquitous polycationic molecules that occur in all living cells. However, plants accumulate a number of specific related compounds under free or conjugated forms. In plant tissues, the molecular diversity combined with the fact that amine contents are highly responsive to developmental and environmental signals encouraged analysts to develop specific procedures for their isolation and characterization. The main goals were to develop high performance routine procedures in terms of selectivity, repeatability and detectability with minimum running costs. Domains of application concern not only fundamental aspects of amine biochemistry and physiology in plants but also increasing needs in the control of food and beverage quality from plant origin. The present review reports the most recent advances in extraction, identification and quantitation of amines in plant tissues with special interest in the analysis of original and uncommon metabolites. Emphasis is directed towards chromatographic and electrophoretic separation methodologies and new detection technologies of both derivatized and underivatized compounds including photometry, fluorometry, amperometry and mass spectrometry.