Determination of domoic acid in phytoplankton by high-performance liquid chromatography of the 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate derivative.

Domoic acid is the toxin that can cause amnesic shellfish poisoning. In this work, a new precolumn derivatization reagent, 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidyl carbamate, was used to react with domoic acid to form a stable unsymmetrical urea derivative, which was readily analyzed by reversed-phase HPLC with fluorescence detection. The one-step derivatizing method is rapid and straightforward. The method was applied to detect domoic acid in phytoplankton using a 3.9 x 150 mm Nova-Pak, 4 microm, C(18) column.