High-speed separation of amino acids using pre-column derivatization by a UHPLC system and its application to wine analysis

Amino acid analysis is becoming more important in a variety of application fields, ranging from food analysis to protein science. A number of separation and detection methods are currently used. Among them, a combination of pre- column derivatization with OPA (o-Phthalaldehyde) and separation on a C18 column with fluorescence detection. This is generally preferred due to the simplicity and high sensitivity of the method.

Jasco examined the usefulness of an X-PressPak V-C (2.0 mm I.D. x 50 mm L.) packed with a 2 um diameter packing material for the ultra-high speed separation of amino acids. The results were examined to determine whether the performance of the column and the chromatography system exceeds those of conventional HPLC.