Determination of carnitine by high-performance liquid chromatography using 9-anthryldiazomethane

The high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of carnitine chloride was investigated by using 9-anthryldiazomethane (ADAM) as a pre-column derivatization reagent. Carnitine chloride and the internal standard N,N-dimethylglycine reacted with ADAM to give a stable ester derivative in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) used to mask the basic function. The ADAM derivative of carnitine was separated from decomposition products of the reagent and related compounds such as amino acid derivatives on a silica gel column eluted with methanol-5% aqueous SDS-phosphoric acid (990:10:1). The calibration plot was linear over a sample concentration range from 0.02 to 100 ng per injection. The detection limit for carnitine chloride was about 1 pg per injection (signal to noise ratio = 4), by fluorometric detection.