High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of nicotinic acid and nicotinamide in biological samples applying post-column derivatization resulting in bathmochrome absorption shifts.

An ion-pair reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic procedure for the rapid separation and sensitive quantitation of nicotinic acid (NA) and nicotinamide (NAM) in biological samples was developed. The vitamers were separated within 10 min on an octadecylsilica column applying a linear gradient of tetrabutylammonium phosphate and methanol. NA and NAM were converted to highly absorbing derivatives by a modified König's reaction using a double post-column derivatization arrangement consisting of two pumps and two knitted tubular reactors. The proposed method is highly sensitive and specific and applicable to biological materials as was shown by the analysis of rat intestinal tissue.