Abstract:

A precolumn derivatization with dansyl chloride reversed high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC)
method was developed for rapid determination of histamine in aquatic products. Samples were extracted with trichloroacetic
acid, derivatized with dansyl chloride before separation on a C18 columnusing an isocratic elution program with a mixture of
70% acetonitrile and 30% ultra-pure water and detection at 254 nm. The results showed that the retention time of histamine
was 5.5 min. The linear range of histamine was 1–500 μg/mL with a correlation coefficient of 0.999 9. The limit of detection
(RSN = 3) was 0.5 μg/mL and the limit of quantization (RSN = 10) was 1.0 μg/mL. The repeatability of the instrument was
good. In 16 aquatic products and 19 processed aquatic products, histamine levels were detected as being between 0 and
682.22 mg/kg by the method. The average recoveries of histamine at different spiked concentration levels in blank samples
were between 84.54% and 101.92%. This method proved rapid, accurate, sensitive, and reproducible and could be used for
determining histamine in aquatic products. Moreover, the levels of histamines in skipjack tuna, mackerel and blue scad were
detected at different temperatures as a function of storage by this method. The results showed that the contents of histamine
were significantly lower at lower temperatures than at higher temperatures, revealing that the production of histamine can be
inhibited at a lower temperature.

Key words: aquatic products, histamine, dansyl chloride, pre-column derivatization, reversed high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC), low temperature storage