Abstract: A sensitive and rapid method for the simultaneous determination of 8 biogenic amine residues in aquatic products was established using an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) system. Aquatic product samples were extracted with perchloric acid solution, centrifugated, defatted with n-hexane and derivatized with dansyl chloride. The derivative was allowed to react with ammonia water and made up to the desired volume with acetonitrile. A 5 ?L sample was injected and separated in a gradient elution mode. The detection wavelength was set as 245 nm. The results showed that 8 biogenic amines displayed a linear relationship in the range of 0.5–20 μg/mL with correlation coefficients not lower than 0.999. The spike recovery rates of 8 biogenic amines were in the range of 71.99%–97.65% with intra-batch precision RSD of 0.15%–8.89% and inter-batch precision RSD of 1.55%–10.7% (n = 6). The limit of detection was 15.0 μg/kg for Try and Phe, 6.0 μg/kg for Put, Cad and His, and 20.0 μg/kg for Try, Spd and Spm. This method was rapid, simple, sensitive, repeatable and accurate and the analysis process could be completed in 13 min. Thus, it is suitable for the rapid and large-scale determination of biogenic amine residues in aquatic products.

Key words: biogenic amines (BAs), aquatic products, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC)