Determination of histamine by high-pH anion-exchange chromatography with electrochemical detection

A simple, sensitive and rapid method is described for determining histamine in alkaline media by anion-exchange chromatography with amperometric detec tion at a copper-based modified glassy carbon electrode. The influence of c opper loading, applied potential and flow rate on the amperometric signal w as evaluated. Under optimal chromatographic conditions, the detection limit for histamine (S/N = 3) was 0.1 muM (corresponding to 5 pmol injected by a 50-mul sample loop). The linear range spanned from 5 to 500 muM (correlati on coefficient = 0.998). The proposed method allows a rapid and convenient quantitation of histamine in real matrices, such as canned tuna and red win e, without time-consuming clean-up or derivatisation procedures. (C) 2001 E lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.