Preparation and gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis of N-acetyl-O-trimethylsilyl derivatives of long-chain base residues of natural sphingomyelin.

A procedure for the preparation of long-chain base residues of egg yolk, bovine milk and bovine brain sphingomyelin was developed. The bases were converted to N-acetyl-O-trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatives before being submitted to gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The chromatographic profile of the milk sample was complex with thirteen peaks, whereas the profiles of brain and egg yolk long-chain bases were simple and remarkably similar.