Quantities of B6 vitamers in human milk by high-performance liquid chromatography. Influence of maternal vitamin B6 status.

A rapid, sensitive procedure is described for the analysis of the B6 vitamers pyridoxal, pyridoxamine, and pyridoxine in human milk from women taking and not taking supplements containing the vitamin using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorometric detection. Vitamer values represent the sum of their phosphorylated and unphosphorylated forms. Minimum detectable quantities were 1-3 ng. Excellent recoveries of these vitamers in milk were obtained. Similar B6 vitamer concentrations of milk were obtained using the developed high-performance liquid chromatographic and the accepted microbiological techniques. Pyridoxal, actually consisting of pyridoxal plus pyridoxal phosphate, was the predominant B6 vitamer in human milk. The concentration of B6 vitamers in milk was reflective of the maternal vitamin B6 status.