DEVELOPMENT OF AN HPLC-UV METHOD FOR DETERMINATION OF TAURINE IN INFANT FORMULAS AND BREAST-MILK

A rapid and accurate high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) pr ocedure was proposed for routine and selective determination of taurin e in infant formulas and breast milk. The sample preparation was simpl e, involving protein removal and filtration operations. Afterwards, ta urine,was derivatised with o-phthalaldehyde/2-mercaptoethanol prior to injection onto a reversed phase column C-18 (S10ODS2). Isocratic elut ion was carried out using 0.05 M phosphate buffer pH 5.3/methanol (60: 40) mixture. The effluent was monitored by a UV detector at 350 nm. A linear relationship was found between peak area and a concentration ra nge of 1-70 mu g/mL. The detection limit was 0.3 mu g/mL. Effective se paration and quantification was achieved in under six: minutes. No int erference of other amino acids was observed.