Abstract: The purpose of this study was to establish a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the qualitative and quantitative detection of histamine in Suanzharou, a unique and traditional fermented meat product of the Tujia nationality in southeastern Chongqing. 1,7-Heptanediamine was used as an internal standard substance. Dansyl chloride was used as a derivatization agent. The chromatographic separation was accomplished using an Agilent C18 column as stationary phase and a mixture of 70% methanol and 30% ultra pure water as mobile phase, and the UV detector was set at 254 nm. The analyte was extracted with 0.4 mol/L HClO4 solution and analyzed by HPLC. Results showed that the peaks for 1,7-heptanediamine and histamine dihydrochloride appeared at 4.335 min and 7.723 min, respectively, and an acceptable separation was achieved. The proposed method showed a good linearity between the ratio of peak area (histamine dihydrochloride and 1,7-heptanediamine) and the mass concentration of histamine. The recovery of spiked samples was between 98.5%–102.2%, the instrumental limit of detection (LOD) was 0.50 mg/L and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) was 1.00 mg/L. The precision expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD) was 1.0%. The histamine content of 10 real samples was detected to be in the range of 19.68–44.15 mg/kg, with significant differences existing among these samples (P < 0.05). In conclusion, this method is reliable for the detection of histamine in Suanzharou with high sensitivity and precision.

Key words: southeastern Chongqing, Suanzharou, histamine, HPLC