Simultaneous determination of tyramine and tryptamine and their precursor amino acids by micellar liquid chromatography and pulsed amperometric detection in wines

Two biogenic amines, tryptamine and tyramine, and their precursors, tryptophan and tyrosine, were determined by a liquid chromatographic procedure. A hybrid micellar mobile phase of sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and 1-propanol, a C18 column and electrochemical detection were used. A pH study in the range of 3–9 was performed and pH 3 was finally selected in accordance with resolution and analysis time. Oxidation potential was also checked in the range 0.6–0.9 V: the maximum area obtained in all those potentials was at 0.8 V, which was selected to carry out the analysis using a sequence of pulsed amperometric detection waveform. The four compounds were resolved using a mobile phase of 0.15 M SDS–5% 1-propanol with an analysis time of 16 min. Repeatabilities and intermediate precision were evaluated at three different concentrations for each compound with RSD values lower than 2.6 and 4.8%, respectively. Limits of detection and quantification were also obtained within the 10–40 and 33–135 ng/ml ranges, respectively. Finally, the applicability of the procedure was tested in several types of wine and no matrix effect was observed. The possibility of direct sample introduction simplifies and greatly expedites the treatments with reduced cost, improving the accuracy of the procedures.