High performance liquid chromatography separation of the intermediates of pyridine coenzymes metabolism in Ricinus communis L. seedlings.

The metabolism of pyridine coenzymes is not yet well clarified in vegetable cells. We propose a HPLC method to separate the compounds involved in the pyridine nucleotides cycle in less than 32 min. The method has been applied to Ricinus communis seedlings. On the basis of the results obtained, the well known "de novo" and "salvage" pathways, demonstrated in other biological tissues for NAD biosynthesis, are likely to occur in this vegetable system.