Reversed-Phase Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Hypoglycin A (HG-A) in Canned Ackee Fruit Samples

Abstract

Abstract A reversed-phase liquid chromatographic (LC) method involving precolumn derivatization with phenylisothiocyanate (PITC) was developed for determining levels of hypoglycin A (HG-A) in canned ackee fruit samples. HG-A was extracted by homogenizing the drained fruit in 80% ethanol. By using a Waters Pico-Tag amino acid analysis 15-cm-long column (which is also used for analyzing protein hydrolysates and biological samples) and an LC system, the baseline separation of HG-A from other amino acids was completed in about 6 min. The total time for analysis and equilibration was 16 min. HG-A levels in the edible portion of fruit in 18 cans varied from 18.27 to 87.50 mg HG-A/can. Recoveries of added standard HG-A averaged 101%. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the use of this method to determine HG-A in ackee fruit.