Selective liquid chromatographic determination of trace domoic acid in seawater and phytoplankton: improvement using the o-phthaldialdehyde/9-fluorenylmethylchloroformate derivatization

Type Article
Date 2013-06
Language English
Author(s) Devez Aurelie1, Delmas Daniel1
Affiliation(s) 1 : IFREMER, Ctr Brest, Dept ODE DYNECO PELAGOS, F-29280 Plouzane, France.
Source Limnology And Oceanography-methods (1541-5856) (Amer Soc Limnology Oceanography), 2013-06 , Vol. 11 , P. 327-336
DOI 10.4319/lom.2013.11.327
WOS© Times Cited 5
Abstract Domoic acid (DA), a toxin produced worldwide by some species of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia, is responsible for contamination of marine molluscs, mammals, birds, and for human intoxication, and when detected in high levels results in closures of shellfish farms, thus causing severe economic losses to aquaculture. Studies on algal production of DA in cultures and field samples require sensitive methods capable of measuring trace concentrations of domoic acid. Measuring domoic acid concentrations at trace levels is still a significant challenge. A sensitive and reliable double derivatization using o-phthaldialdehyde-mercaptoethanol/9-fluorenylmethylchloroformate (OPA-MeSH/FMOC-Cl) followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection has been adapted for the determination of trace levels of dissolved (dDA) and particulate domoic acid (pDA). The selectivity toward domoic acid is greatly improved by eliminating the reaction between FMOC-Cl and primary amines. Compared with the original Pocklington method, the sensitivity obtained by the double derivatization is largely enhanced (x6) and the reproducibility is significantly increased (<4% relative standard deviation [RSD] for nanomolar domoic acid concentrations). A better precision and an improved inter-operator reproducibility were obtained with this two-step derivatization optimized protocol. This methodology will be useful for monitoring domoic acid production both in Pseudo-nitzschia cultures and in natural environmental marine samples.
Full Text
File Pages Size Access
Publisher's official version 10 748 KB Open access
Author's final draft 33 545 KB Open access
Top of the page

How to cite 

Devez Aurelie, Delmas Daniel (2013). Selective liquid chromatographic determination of trace domoic acid in seawater and phytoplankton: improvement using the o-phthaldialdehyde/9-fluorenylmethylchloroformate derivatization. Limnology And Oceanography-methods, 11, 327-336. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.4319/lom.2013.11.327 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00151/26234/