Quantitation of histamine and some of its basic methylated metabolites in biological materials by gas-liquid chromatography.

A method which measures histamine, its basic metabolites, and some analogs in biological materials is described. The procedure consists of ion-exchange chromatography and chromatography on silicic acid for isolation and purification, and gas chromatography for identification and quantitation. The isolated compounds are prepared for gas chromatography by double derivatization with heptafluorobutyric anhydride and acetic anhydride. One of the synthetic histamine analogs, 2-methylhistamine, is used as an internal standard. The metabolites can be quantitated at a level as low as 1.5 nmol/100 microliters final concentration. The method is adaptable to a variety of applications, with good reproducibility and sensitivity. A number of different biological samples have been analyzed.