Determination of phytohormones in plant samples based on the precolumn fluorescent derivatization with 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-8-aminozide-difluoroboradiaza-s-indacene by HPLC for routine use

Six phytohormones including indole butyric acid (IBA), naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), 2,4-dichloro-phenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), abscisic acid (ABA), and salicylic acid (SA) in crude plant extractions have been quantitated by means of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection based on the precolumn derivatization using 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-8-aminozide-difluoroboradiaza-s-indacene (BODIPY-aminozide), a fluorescent reagent synthesized in our lab recently. The optimization of derivatization conditions was carefully studied by an L-25 (5(6)) orthogonal array design (OAD) with five factors at five levels that are important influence parameters in the improvement of derivatization efficiency. The separation conditions were also studied in detail. Under the optimal conditions, the detection limits (S/N = 3) of the six phytohormones were found from 0.12 to 0.75 nM. The proposed method was the first investigation of aminozide for the analysis of phytohormones and has been successfully applied to the determination of phytohormones in plant samples such as cucumber and tomato with recoveries of 94-105%.