High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of biogenic amines in poultry carcasses

Biogenic amines, produced by bacterial decarboxylation of amino acids, have been associated with toxicological symptoms in broilers fed various poultry byproducts. A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method is described for the quantitation of eight biogenic amines (tryptamine, phenylethylamine, putrescine, cadaverine, histamine, tyramine, spermidine, and spermine) in chicken carcasses. Amines were extracted with perchloric acid, derivatized with dansyl chloride, separated using gradient elution (methanol and water), and detected by fluorescence. Benzylamine was used as the internal standard. Linearity, repeatability, and recovery of the method were evaluated. The method was linear for all of the amines studied at concentrations ranging from 0.05 to 25 microg/mL. Average recoveries ranged from 92.6% to 96.8% for all amines except for histamine, which was 74.6%.