Abstract: A rapid detection method for histamine was established based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). In this method, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were used as the enhancing substrate and sodium chloride (NaCl) solution as the aggregating agent to effectively enhance the Raman characteristic peaks of histamine. The results indicated that the prepared AgNPs exhibited significant Raman enhancement, and the Raman characteristic peaks corresponding to the molecular structure of histamine were located at 640, 936, 997, 1 029, 1 097, 1 134, 1 257, 1 313, 1 425, and 1 563 cm-1, which could serve as quantitative indicators for histamine detection. Rapid and sensitive detection of histamine was achieved by optimizing the concentration factor of AgNPs, the amount of NaCl solution added, and detection format. Good linear relationship was observed between the Raman characteristic peak at 1 257 cm-1 and histamine concentration over the range of 10 to 1 000 mg/kg, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 1.21 mg/kg. Furthermore, the method was applied to detect three actual samples: fish, shrimp, and wine, and compared with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that the recovery of this method ranged from 95.95% to 106.26%, with a relative standard deviation (RSD) between 1.6% and 5.9%, indicating good accuracy and precision.

Key words: silver nanoparticles; surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy; histamine detection