Determination of Biogenic Amines in Malaysian Traditional Wine by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)

Abstract

An improved method for the simultaneous determination of seven biogenic amines is described by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The targeted compounds were diluted and extracted with 0.1 M HCl. The isolated biogenic amines were derivatized with dansyl chloride using optimized conditions followed by separation and analysis using a developed and validated HPLC method with diode-array detection. Eighteen samples from four traditional wines (Toddy, Mijiu, Uangjiu, and Huangjiu) produced in Malaysia were analyzed for their biogenic amine contents. The results showed that histamine and tryptamine were the most prevalent biogenic amines, followed by cadaverine, phenylethylamine, putrescine, spermidine, and tyramine. Histamine and cadaverine were detected at high levels in the Toddy samples, while histamine and trytamine were commonly present in the Mijiu, Uangjiu, and Huangjiu products. The total biogenic amines ranged from undetected to 465.4 ± 7.6 mg/L. All of the analyzed samples contained tyramine below the threshold of 10 mg/L, while 16.7% had histamine levels higher than the limit of 20 mg/L. The wines with high histamine contents may possibly be a risk to human health.