Analysis of Polyamines in Higher Plants by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

A sensitive (0.01-1 nmol) method has been developed for the analysis of polyamines in higher plant extracts based on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) of their benzoyl derivatives (Redmond, Tseng 1979 J Chromatogr 170: 479-481). Putrescine, cadaverine, agmatine, spermidine, spermine, and the less common polyamines nor-spermidine and homospermidine can be completely resolved by reverse phase HPLC, isocratic elution with methanol:water (64%, v/v) through a 5-mum C(18) column, and detection at 254 nm. The method can be directly applied to crude plant extracts, and it is not subject to interference by carbohydrates and phenolics. A good quantitative correlation was found between HPLC analysis of benzoylpolyamines and thin layer chromatography of their dansyl derivatives. With the HPLC method, polyamine titers have been reproducibly estimated for various organs of amaranth, Lemna, oat, pea, Pharbitis, and potato. The analyses correlate well with results of thin layer chromatography determinations.