Capillary gas chromatographic determination of spermidine in diet integrators

Biogenic polyamines, among which is spermidine (SPD, NH2-(CH2)4-NH-(CH2)3-NH2), are ubiquitous polycationic molecules that have a definitive role in many biological processes, such as nucleic acid metabolism, protein synthesis and cell growth. SPD is present in diet integrators because it seems to favour the hair growth. This work describes a capillary gas chromatographic (CGC) method for the quantitative determination of SPD in diet integrators using cadaverine internal standard (IS), a methyl siliconic capillary column and flame-ionization detector (FID). Diet tablets, containing SPD, are pulverized; an aliquot of powder is treated with an alkaline aqueous solution and added with IS. The suspension is extracted with diethyl ether containing ethyl chloroformate (ECF). The ether extracts, evaporated to dryness and reconstituted in ethyl acetate were analyzed in CGC/FID. Derivatives of polyamines with ECF were characterized in CGC/MS too. Validation has considered specificity, linearity, precision and accuracy of analytical method; this parameters are valid for the quantitative determination of SPD in diet integrators.