Determination of biogenic amines in wines and beers by high performance liquid chromatography with pre-column dansylation and ultraviolet detection

A sensitive high performance liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of eleven biogenic amines, using 1,7-diaminoheptane as internal standard, has been developed. The method involves pre-column derivatization of the amines with dansyl chloride and subsequent solid phase extraction of the derivatives through C18 cartridges. The derivatization and solid phase extraction procedures were optimized. The separation of dansylamides was achieved on an Inertsil ODS-3 column (250 x 4 mm I.D., 5 mum) using a 35-min gradient elution method with a binary system of acetonitrile-water, a flow rate of 1 mL.min(-1) with UV detection at 254 nm. Linearity of derivatization was obtained for concentrations ranging from 0.025 to 3.0 mg.L-1. The within- and between-day relative standard deviations ranged from 0.4 to 5.7% and 0.6 to 73% respectively The overall process was successfully applied to identify and quantify biogenic amines in white, red and Retsina Greekwines and Greek beers, after their treatment with polyvinylpyrrolidone.