Chromatography Forum

hi,
i want to identify all the amino acids present in mushooms. which will be the best and cheapest method. please give your expertise suggestions as early as possible.

heard about: Dionex AAA direct amino acid analyzer, is this the only way? if so please please tell me how mush that it costs?

thanking you all in advance .

The Dionex AAA-Direct system works well, but what do you expect me to say? The Dionex system costs about the same as any other high-end HPLC system. If you already have a Dionex ion chromatography system, you can upgrade it. Contact your local representative. You need to discuss your requirements in detail to see how well AAA-Direct matches your expectations. It does have some unique features that you can't get anywhere else, and they may be good for you; it has some limitations that may or may not be a problem for you.

If you only have a limited number of samples, you should contract it out. Only if this is to be a routine analysis should you invest the capital and time needed to get good equipment and good results. (Or else it is your PhD research.) Fungi have complex metabolisms. If you think you will be identifying unusual or novel amino acids, this is a job for an expert. Either you hire one, or you work to become one.

There are several alternative methods and systems out there, and I'll let the other vendors speak for themselves.

There are several methods around to analyse amino acids without the need for a new HPLC instrument. With other words, if you have an instrument available at your location, this might be a good place to start.

It is also not a trivial exercise to get the amino acids out of the mushroom matrix. Look for some previous posts on AAs in this forum.

I agree with everything it has been said, so the question is when you say "all the amino acids" due you mean just the all the proteinogenic ones or all the physiological ones (which really becomes a PhD thesis). In the last case, the use of the mass spectrometry will be necessary...