Histamine levels in Indian fish via enzymatic, TLC and HPLC methods during storage

Abstract

Histamine is a potentially hazardous compound and one of the major concerns in food chemistry. In the present study the histamine levels of 20 muscle sample for each milk fish (Chanos chanos) and Indian whiting (Sillago indica) were analyzed with 6, 12, 18 and 24 h intervals and compared by enzymatic assay (EA), thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods. During storage, histamine levels were ranged between 16.50 ± 1.63 and 48.13 ± 1.24 mg/100 g with a linear regression r2 = 0.855; P < 0.05 for the milk fish as determined by the EA method. Whereas, histamine levels in Indian whiting was 19.86 ± 1.64–43.84 ± 2.44 mg/100 g with a linear regression r2 = 0.997; P < 0.01. In the TLC method, histamine were observed at lower levels compared to the EA and HPLC and showing 4.77 ± 0.13–7.72 ± 0.16 and 6.81 ± 0.11–7.53 ± 0.15 mg/100 g in milk fish and Indian whiting muscle, respectively. The linear regression r2 = 0.835; P < 0.05 was noted in both fishes. The HPLC analysis also confirmed that the histamine levels were ranged from 18.18 ± 1.03 to 28.69 ± 1.14 mg/100 g in milk fish with a linear regression r2 = 0.903; P < 0.01. For Indian whiting fish, histamine was ranged from 17.28 ± 1.67 to 23.97 ± 1.27 mg/100 g with a linear regression r2 = 0.910; P < 0.01. Therefore, monitoring of histamine is a critical task in the seafood industry. Our result showed that the TLC methods can be used to monitor the histamine content in routine analysis and enzymatic analysis can be used to quantify the levels of histamine in the seafood industry.