Determination of the non protein amino acid β-N-methylamino-l-alanine in estuarine cyanobacteria by capillary electrophoresis.

A capillary electrophoretic method for the determination of the amino acid β-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA) was achieved using a fused-silica capillary column (50 cm × 75 μm I.D.) filled with 5 mM sodium tetraborate solution (pH 9), with an applied voltage of 25 kV, at 25 °C. The method was then applied in quantifying BMAA in eighteen strains of lyophilized estuarine cyanobacteria, following amino acid extraction using 0.1 M trichloroacetic acid and 6 M hydrochloric acid, sequentially.