Determination of Volatile Amines Using Needle-Type Extraction Coupled with Gas Chromatography–Barrier Discharge Ionization Detection

Abstract

Volatile amines including ammonia, methylamine, dimethylamine, ethylamine, and trimethylamine were extracted using a needle-type extraction device followed by determination using a gas chromatography–barrier discharge ionization detector. The analyte amines were extracted based on their reaction with an organic acid in the needle packed by the adsorbent. The extracted compounds were desorbed by heating the extraction needle in the GC injection port and introduced into a GC column. After optimization of the desorption process, the proposed method was quantitatively evaluated for linearity, repeatability, and sensitivity. The limits of detection for ammonia, methylamine, dimethylamine, ethylamine, and trimethylamine with an air sampling volume of 100 mL were 0.03, 0.1, 1, 0.06 and 0.05 µg L−1, respectively. The method was applied to the determination of amines from raw fish and raw meat samples.