Determination of biogenic amines in meat by combined ion-exchange and capillary gas chromatography

A procedure is described for the determination of putrescine, cadaverine and histamine in meat. Crude perchloric acid extracts were pre-separated on a weakly acidic cation exchanger and the amines quantified by capillary gas chromatography. The diamines were analysed as trifluoroacetyl derivatives and histamine was converted into N alpha-trifluoroacetyl-N tau-ethoxycarbonylhistamine. The accuracy of the determination of diamines was examined by a precipitation pre-separation method and by mass fragmentometric quantification. The proposed procedure allows the sensitive, sufficiently precise and highly specific determination of putrescine and cadaverine in meat.