Separation of alpha-amino acid enantiomers by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography after derivatization with o-phthaldialdehyde and a sodium salt of 1-thio-beta-D-glucose.

A sensitive system for D,L-amino acid analysis has been developed, using fluorescence derivatization with o-phthaldialdehyde in the presence of sodium salt of 1-thio-beta-D-glucose. The reagents rapidly form fluorescent diastereoisomeric derivatives with primary amino acids. These derivatives are efficiently separated on a conventional reversed-phase column with an analysis time of 60 min. Simultaneous determination of enantiomers of various amino acids was achieved by a simple binary gradient elution with methanol in 0.05 M aqueous sodium acetate.