Amino Acids (Free and Hydrolyzed)

Abstract

Amino acids are an important compound since they form part of the proteins and are intermediates in themetabolism. Some amino acids are synthesized by the organism, however, in other cases, they should beingested in the diet (essential amino acids). Because of the high content of amino acids in meat and meatproducts and their influence on the nutritional and sensorial quality, it is necessary the validation of newtechniques to be more sensitive, faster, and versatile for the determination of both free and hydrolyzedamino acids. Despite that there are published several techniques for amino acids extraction, derivatizationand for identification/quantification, it should be mentioned that some of them present certain limitations.The present chapter gives a clear and complete vision of a procedure for the free and hydrolyzed aminoacids analysis in meat and meat products. Free amino acid extraction includes the following steps: homogenizationand extraction from the meat matrix, deproteinization, derivatization with 6-aminoquinolyl-Nhydroxysuccinimidylcarbamate, and subsequent analysis by liquid chromatography with fluorescencedetection (HPLC-FL). Hydrolyzed amino acids are determinate in the following manner: first, thehydrolysis step during 24 h at 110 C and then the derivatization step with 6-aminoquinolyl-N-hydroxysuccinimidylcarbamate prior to chromatographic analysis by HPLC-FL. All steps are described in detailso that the conditions proposed by us can be reproduced by other researchers.