Ammonium acetate: a general purpose buffer for clinical applications of high-performance liquid chromatography

The chromatographic properties of ammonium acetate have been studied, and its use as a general purpose buffer for reversed-phase chromatography has been investigated. Simple ammonium acetate systems can often replace complicated and expensive buffers, with or without ion-pairing agents, with improved column selectivity and efficiency. A wide range of clinically important compounds have been successfully separated by ammonium acetate buffer systems. These include creatinine, bilirubin, verapamil and its metabolites, etoposide and teniposide, vitamin A, biogenic amines and porphyrins.