Sensitive determination of aliphatic amines by high-performance liquid chromatography with a new fluorogenic probe 3-(4-fluorinebenzoyl)-2-quinoline carboxaldehyde.

A new fluorogenic reagent 3-(4-fluorinebenzoyl)-2-quinoline carboxaldehyde (FBQCA) has been synthesized and used as a derivatizing reagent for the determination of aliphatic amines with HPLC. The reagent is nonfluorescent, but forms highly fluorescent isoindole upon the reaction with primary amines in alkaline medium. Eleven amine derivatives were baseline separated in 8 min using a gradient elution on a C(8) column and detected with fluorescence detection at lambda(ex)/lambda(em) = 480/546 nm. The detection limits were in the range of 0.5-2 nM (S/N = 3). The proposed method has been successfully applied to the analysis of aliphatic amines in food and environmental samples, including white wine, soybean oil, soil, and tap water with satisfactory recoveries in the range of 94-106%.