Abstract
The vitamin B12 analogue was detected by a simple column chromatography method from a bamboo shoot that was expected to contain the vitamin B12 analogue.
The vitamin B12 analogue was extracted in a Tris buffer containing 0.1% KCN from etiolated bamboo shoots, and the extract was applied to the HPLC for isolation using ionexchange and reverse-phase columns. Both of the optimum densities of 278 and 361 nm were detected in the fraction that has the same retention time as the authentic cyanocobalamin in chromatography used as a standard. In the mass analysis of the fraction, one of the signals (1346.4) closely resembled the cyanocobalamin (1331.4) molecule, indicating that the fraction reasonably contained the vitamin B12 analogue. Additionally, this column chromatography method was used in parallel to the fractionated crude extracts from rice seedlings and asparagus shoots which are both known not to contain cyanocobalamin. No fractions from the rice and the asparagus were detected by the examination of the specific spectrum of the optimum density of cyanocobalamin from absorbance in the range of 200nm to 600nm.The analysis method was consequently effective and conventional in the detection of the vitamin B12 analogue in a nutrimental plant at the present time.
