ABSTRACT
Objective To establish a method for fingerprint analysis of amino acids from honey by high performance liquid chromatography ( HPLC). Methods Amino acids of honey were concentrated by 732 cation exchange resin, and then were treated by pre-column derivatization with phenyl isothiocyanate, with praline as control peak. The chromatography was performed on a Waters Symmetry C18 ( 250 mm × 4.6 mm × 5 μm) column, with acetonitrile ∶ water (4∶1) as mobile phase A and 30 mmol/L sodium acetate ∶ acetonitrile (355∶15, acetic acid adjusting pH value to be 6.5) as mobile phase B by gradient elution. The detection wave length was set at 254 nm. The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min. The column temperature was 40℃, and the injection volume was 5μL. Results Sixteen common peaks were shown in the fingerprint of 15 batches of honey samples. The similarity for 15 batches of honey samples was in the range of 0.910 ~ 0.996 . Conclusion The fingerprint detection method is simple, practical, reproducible and specific, and can provide certain reference for quality control of honey.