ABSTRACT
The important role of chirality in nature has long been recognized. Large groups of biologically important molecules such as amino acids are chiral, and for understanding the properties of these substances it is necessary to separate and quantitate the enantiomers individually. This chapter describes an automated procedure for determination of amino acid enantiomers using the 1-(9-fluorenyl) ethyl chloroformate (FLEC) reagent. Methods for amino acid analysis based on pre-column derivatization with fluorescence reagents and separation by reversed-phase chromatography have gained widespread use, because of the low detection limits attainable and the flexibility of the separation system. Measurements of the enantiomeric purity of amino acids and the degree of racemization in protein hydrolyzates require a system capable of determining the amino acids in a wide concentration range. Racemization of amino acids was determined after acid hydrolysis of different peptides and free amino acids.
