A sensitive and selective gas chromatographic method for the determination of glycerophosphate was carried out and good results were obtained, in which a flame photometric detector (FPD) was used as a detector and the emission was measured with a photomultiplier tube through an interference filter with a transmission maximum at 526 nm. Glycerophosphate was trimethylsilylated with bis (trimethylsilyl) fluoroacetamide containing 1% trimethychlorosilane in pyridine. Tetrakis (trimethylsilyl)-glycerophosphate was subjected to a gas chromatograph equipped with an FPD and a glass column (3 mm i.d.×1 m) packed with 2% OV-17 on Chromosorb W, AW-DMCS. The column temperature was 160°C, the carrier gas was nitrogen at a flow-rate of 40 ml/min, the fuel gas was hydrogen (100 ml/min) and oxygen (20 ml/min), and detector gas was nitrogen (40 ml/min). The photomultiplier voltage was 700 V. Response to glycerophosphate was found to be linear from 1 ng to 1 μg. The retention times of glycerophosphates of GC-FPD were as follows : β-glycerophosphate (3.2 min), α-glycerophosphate (3.8 min). This method was found to be much more rapid and simple than a paper chromatography and a thin-layer chromatography. Thus the method is convenient for the measurement of glycerophosphates in commercial phospholipids.
