Chapter 10 Amino acids and oligopeptides

Abstract

Publisher Summary Analysis of amino acids by ion-exchange chromatography is based on the separation and quantitation of the common amino acids. This chapter reviews the literature concerning sample preparation, internal standards, resins, buffers, detectors, computation, and various programs. The adsorption of amino acids on nonpolar stationary phases, first investigated in the forties and used for chromatographic separation, had lost some of its significance through the development of ion-exchange. However, with the progress of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) interest in nonpolar stationary phases was reawakened. When the HPLC separation of amino acids is compared with ion-exchange and gas chromatography (GC), the following facts should be kept in mind: (1) automatic ion-exchange equipment is expensive and limited to the analysis of amino acids and a complete separation of the 20 naturally occurring amino acids requires about 60 min, (2) performing separation by gas chromatography requires derivatization, which is not equally applicable to all components. HPLC, on the other hand, offers a very versatile tool for such work. The apparatus is relatively cheap, applicable to various problems and substances, and is capable of separating 20 amino acids in less than 40 minutes.