DETERMINATION OF BIOGENIC-AMINES IN FERME NTED MEAT-PRODUCTS

Biogenic amines form when proteins putrefy. It used to be assumed that the so-called putrefraction bases such as putrescine and cadaverine w ere highly toxic. They were counted amongst the toxins arising from co rpses - the ptomaines. More recent research has found however that put rescine and cadaverine are relatively harmless and that the toxic subs tances produced when protein putrefies are pure bacterial toxins. The biogenic amines are not produced only from putrefying corpses, as used to be believed, but occur primarily in many tissues of living organis ms and have important functions to perform here.