- P-ISSN 1225-0163
- E-ISSN 2288-8985
Detectable levels of several free D-amino acids were found in some food. This was accomplished by using a column switching method. The determination of total amount of D- and L-amino acids was based on an achiral separation with a <TEX>$C_{18}$</TEX> column. The level of D-amino acids to L-amino acids was determined by the column switching system including the postcolumn reaction detection of the amino acids derivatized with O-phthalaldehyde. The chiral separation of the postcolumn detection system was carried out with chiral crown ether column. This system was applied for the micro-determination of D-amino acids in food such as soy sauce, fermented soy bean and beans. It turned out that the sampling process is critical for the trace analysis of D-amino acids under this achiral / chiral coupled-column system. It was found that commercial soy sauce contained 42ppm, conventional soy sauce 102ppm, fermented soy bean 8.34mg per 1g and bean 2.87mg per 1g sample for phenylalanine. D-phenylalanine was found 0.67% in commercial soy sauce, 0.34% in conventional soy sauce, less than 1.81% in fermented soy bean, and Jess than 2.82% in bean.