Electrophoretic determination of histamine

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Food Science
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Histamine analysis in food and feed is crucial for safety and quality control.
• Existing methods like High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) can be time-consuming and labor-intensive.
• There is a need for rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective histamine determination techniques.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe and validate an on-line coupled capillary isotachophoresis with capillary zone electrophoresis (cITP-CZE) method for histamine determination.
• To evaluate the method's performance characteristics, including linearity, accuracy, precision, and detection limit.
• To compare the cITP-CZE method with a routine accredited HPLC method for histamine analysis in food and feed samples.

Main Methods:

• Development and optimization of an on-line coupled capillary isotachophoresis with capillary zone electrophoresis (cITP-CZE) system.
• Utilized conductometric detection (COND) for histamine quantification.
• Analyzed 37 food and feed samples, comparing results with established HPLC methods.

Main Results:

• The cITP-CZE-COND method achieved well-separated histamine detection from other acidic extract components within 25 minutes.
• Method validation demonstrated excellent linearity (22-222 ng/mL), accuracy (91 ± 9% recovery), repeatability (1.5%), reproducibility (3.4%), and a low detection limit (4 ng/mL).
• Results from the cITP-CZE-COND method were comparable to those obtained using routine accredited HPLC.

Conclusions:

• The developed cITP-CZE-COND method is a sensitive, rapid, and efficient technique for histamine determination in foodstuffs and feedstuffs.
• This method offers advantages such as low laboriousness, high sensitivity, speed, and low running costs.
• cITP-CZE-COND provides a viable alternative to conventional HPLC methods for routine histamine analysis.