A procedure for the separation and quantitation of tryptophan and amino sugars on the amino acid analyzer.

Tryptophan, 5-methyl tryptophan, glucosamine, and galactosamine can be separated from each other and hydrolysis products including lysinoalanine by chromatography on a 6 X 260-mm column of W-3H resin. The column is developed at 70 degrees C for 20 min with pH 3.95 (0.4 M Na+) buffer, followed by pH 6.4 (1 M Na+) buffer for 55 min using a Beckman 119 CL amino acid analyzer. The recovery of the internal standards, 5-methyl tryptophan and galactosamine, can then be used to correct for tryptophan and glucosamine losses, respectively. The procedure uses the column and buffers normally employed for protein hydrolysate analysis and does not require additional resin columns, special buffers, or flow rate changes.