Abstract
A method of the high performance liquid chromatographic measurement of Z-urocanic acid (cis-form) and E-urocanic acid (trans-form) is described. The analytical method for the measurement of Z- and E-urocanic acid employed were a Tosoh ODS 80_<TM> (250mm×4.6mm I.D.) column eluted with 20 mM potassium dihydrogenphosphate containing 1 g/l of sodium heptanesulfonate (pH was adjusted to 3.7 by the addition of phosphoric acid): acetonitrile=93:7 (v/v) at a flow-rate of 1.0 ml/min. The UV detector was set at 264nm. The column temperature was maintained at 40℃. Under these conditions, Z-urocanic acid and E-urocanic acid were eluted at about 5.6 and 7.5 min, respectively. The detection limits of both compounds were 2 pmol (276pg) at a signal-to-noise ratio of 5:1. This technique was used to analyze the compounds in human sweat and on surface of human cheek and the total time required for one analysis was around 19 min.
