Determination of biogenic amines in wines and sparkling wines by liquid chromatography with precolumn derivatization

Treballs Finals de Grau de Química, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2020, Tutor:Javier Vicente Saurina Purroy Biogenic amines are often present in different types of food, but they are especially abundant in wines, cheeses, meat and fish as well as in spoiled products. Besides, the presence of a high content of biogenic amines in food can be an indicator that it has been processed under poor hygiene conditions. These amines are generated mainly from the decarboxylation of the respective amino acids. In moderate concentrations, these compounds can be beneficial for the body as they participate in different cellular functions but when the intake of these compounds is too high for the body, toxicological problems such as migraines, headache, hypo- or hypertension, effects on the vascular or nervous system and anaphylactic shocks can result. Therefore, given the harmful effects that biogenic amines can cause in an organism, it is necessary to establish an effective and selective methods to determine these amines in food in order to avoid the commercialization of any food with high concentration of these compounds. Consequently, research is also needed to establish legal limits on the contents of different biogenic amines in food products. This last point is more complicated because the content of biogenic amines that an organism can tolerate depends on it, in turn, on the catabolic pathways of each individual. Thus, a given concentration of amines can be tolerated by an organism with a normal catabolism, but it can cause harmful effects on a sensitive organism. In wines, the most important biogenic amines are histamine, tyramine, putrescine and cadaverine because they are the most abundant and can cause the greatest number of toxicological problems. Among the different types of wines, red wines have the highest content of biogenic amines. Also, in wines, the presence of ethanol increases the toxicological problems that can cause these biogenic amines because this alcohol inhibits or decreases the activity of amino oxidases responsible for their metabolism. In this project, the following biogenic amines have been considered: ethylamine, methylamine, dimethylamine, ethanolamine, butylamine, isobutylamine, isopentylamine and hexylamine. Although these amines are present at trace level, their study is important as possible descriptors of the health quality of food. To separate and determine them adequately the following studies have been carrie