Sensitive micellar electrokinetic chromatography-laser-induced fluorescence method to analyze chiral amino acids in orange juices

In this work a new method to detect the existence of chiral amino acids in orange juice is presented. The method employs beta-cyclodextrins and micellar electrokinetic chromatography with laser-induced fluorescence (MEKC-LIF) to separate and detect L- and D-amino acids (L-aa and D-aa) previously derivatized with fluorescein isothiocianate (FITC). A systematic optimization of the chiral-MEKC conditions is done bringing about in less than 20 min a good separation of the main amino acids found in orange juice (i.e., Pro, Asp, Ser, Asn, Glu, Ala, Arg, and the nonchiral GABA, i.e., gamma-aminobutyric acid). Using this procedure, the analysis time reproducibility for the 15 standard compounds (L-aa, D-aa, and GABA) has been determined to be better than 0.2% (n = 5) for the same day and better than 0.7% (n = 15) for three different days. Corrected peak area reproducibility is somewhat lower, providing values better than 3.3% (n = 5) for the same day and 6.9% (n = 15) for three different days. The limit of detection using this procedure was determined to be 0.86 attomoles for L-Arg. The optimized FITC derivatization method allows the easy and straightforward detection of amino acids in orange concentrates and juices (i.e., only centrifugation of diluted samples for 5 min is needed prior to their derivatization). D-Ala, D-Asp, D-Arg, and D-Glu were determined in orange juices and orange concentrates from different geographical origins using this new method. Moreover, the effect of different temperature treatments (50, 92, and 150 degrees C) on the content of D-aa in orange juice was evaluated.