HPLC Determination of Taurine in Oyster with Precolumn Derivatization Using 2,4-Dinitrofluorobenzene as Derivatizing Reagent

Definite amount of homogenized pulp of oyster was taken as sample, which was extracted successively with water and acetonitrile. An aliquot of the acetonitrile extract was taken and taurine in the extract was pre-column derivatized with 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene under prescribed conditions. The reaction solution was diluted 10 times with acetonitrile. An aliquot of 20 μL of the solution was used for HPLC analysis. In the chromatographic separation, Ultimate C18 column was used as stationary phase, and mixtures of acetonitrile and 0.2% (φ) triethylamine-H2O solution (preadjusted to pH 4.0 with H3PO4) mixed in various ratios were used as mobile phase in the gradient elution. Detection wavelength used was 360 nm. Linear relationship between values of peak area and concentration of taurine (determined as its derivate) was kept in the range of 4.68×10-10 to 4.25×10-5mol·L-1, with detection limit (3S/N) of 5.5×10-11mol·L-1. Recovery was tested by standard addition method, giving values of average recovery of 97.4%, and RSD (n=6) of 2.1%.