Determination of Biogenic Amines in Foods by Capillary Electrophoresis

This review article intends to provide comprehensive analysis on biogenic amines, their source, type and classification. Biogenic amines are nitrogen containing organic compound that naturally exits in nature. They have low molecular weight and are basic in nature. They are active components that act as precursors for synthesis of alkaloids, hormones, protein, nucleotides and aromatic compounds. They occur in plants, animal and microorganism and play an essential role in metabolic and physiological function. This paper focuses on determination of biogenic amines in food by capillary electrophoresis as it causes several health problems such as histamine causes headache, digestive disorders and neurotoxicity, tyramine can cause hypertension and cadaverine can cause cytotoxixity. Biogenic amines are determined by several techniques such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), capillary electrophoresis (CE), Ion exchange chromatography. This paper further focuses on advantages of capillary electrophoresis in determination of biogenic amines in food. Capillary electrophoresis is a liquid phase separation method. The technique of capillary electrophoresis is used to identify, separate and quantify large range of components. There are several types of CE. Instrumentation of CE includes fused silica capillary which has length of 20 - 50cm. The reservoir is filled with separation buffer and the two ends of capillary tube extend between two reservoirs. CE has wide variety of application in identification, separation and quantification. In conclusion, biogenic amines cause many health hazard and is important to be identified and this paper deals with their presence and identifican in food.