A rapid solid-phase extraction fluorometric method for thiamine and riboflavin in salmonid eggs

A new method has been developed and successfully applied to the selective measurement of thiamine (nonphosphorylated), total thiamine (sum of thiamine, thiamine monophosphate [TMP], thiamine diphosphate [TDP], and thiamine triphosphate [TTP]), and potentially interfering riboflavin in acidic (2% trichloroacetic acid) extracts of selected salmonid and walleye egg samples. Acidic extracts of eggs were applied directly to end-capped C18, reversed-phase solid-phase extraction (SPE) columns and separated into three fractions by elution with mixtures of PO4 buffer (pH 2), methanol (10%), and acetonitrile (20%). All thiamine compounds recovered in the first two fractions were oxidized to their corresponding thiochromes with alkaline potassium hexacyanoferrate, and we measured the thiochrome fluorescence (excitation at 360 nm, emission at 460 nm) in a 96-well microplate reader. Riboflavin, recovered in third fraction (eluted with pH 2, 20% acetonitrile), was analyzed directly by measuring the fluorescence of this fraction (excitation at 450 nm, emission at 530 nm). Significant portions of the phosphate esters of thiamine (TMP, TDP, and presumably TTP), when present at low concentrations (< 10 nmol of total -thiamine per gram of egg), were not retained by the 100-mg SPE column, and were collected directly during sample loading and in a subsequent phosphoric acid rinse as fraction 1. Free thiamine (nonphosphorylated) and remaining portions of the TDP and TMP were then eluted in the second fraction with 10% methanol/PO4 buffer, whereas the un-ionized, relatively nonpolar riboflavin was eluted in the third fraction with 20% acetonitrile. This new method uses a traditional sample homogenization of egg tissue to extract thiamine compounds into 2% trichlororacetic acid solution; an inexpensive, commercially available SPE column; small amounts of sample (0.5-1 g); microliter volumes of solvents per sample; a traditional, relatively nonhazardous, oxidation of thiamine compounds to fluorescent thiochromes; and an ultraviolet-visible-wavelength-filter fluorometer for the measurements. ?? Copyright by the American Fisheries Society 2005.