High-performance liquid chromatography of histamine and 1-methylhistamine with on-column fluorescence derivatization

An on-column fluorometric derivatization method was developed for the determination of histamine and 1-methylhistamine (HMs) by high-performance liquid chromatography. The system for the derivatization consisted only of a commercially available single-plunger pump and a reversed-phase C18 column supported on synthetic polymer with a mobile phase of acetonitrile and alkaline borate buffer solution containing o-phthalaldehyde as a derivatization reagent. It required no additional reaction system as for a post-column derivatization method. Injected HMs might be derivatized to a fluorophore on the inlet site of the high-performance liquid chromatographic column, followed by chromatography on the same column. Optimization of the on-column reaction conditions resulted in a simple and sensitive analytical method for the determination of HMs with excellent reproducibility and linearity of 0.05-5 micrograms/ml of both HMs. Application of this method to the determination of HMs in food samples resulted in a limit of quantification of 0.05 mg/100 g and in a greater than 95% overall mean recovery at a fortification of 0.1 mg/g of both HMs. This method was furthermore applicable to the determination of histamine released from rat peritoneal mast cells.