Abstract
Four purine bases, adenine, guanine, hypoxanthine and xanthine in various Japanese alcoholic beverages were quantitatively analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography(HPLC). All samples were hydrolyzed at 100°C for 1 hr with 60-70% perchloric acid. The hydrolyzed samples were neutralized with potassium hydroxide and subjected to cation exchange HPLC for analysis of guanine, hypoxanthine and xanthine, and to reversed phase HPLC for adenine. Total purine contents were as follows; beer: 4.35~6.86 mg/dl whisky: 0.12 mg/dl, brandy: 0.38mg/dl, shouchu: 0.03 mg/dl, sake: 1.21 mg/dl, wine: 0.39 mg/dl respectively. Beer was shown to contain large amounts of purine bases compared with other alcoholic beverages. However, purine contents in Japanese beer were approximately half those of imported beer.
