ABSTRACT
Biogenic amines (BAs) are basic compounds of low molecular weight derived internally from plants, fruits, and vegetables. These organic bases can be divided into several groups according to their chemical structure-aromatic (tyramine and phenylethylamine), aliphatic (putrescine and cadaverine), or heterocyclic (histamine and tryptamine)—or in relation to the number of amino groups into monoamines (phenylethylamine and tyramine) and diamines (histamine, cadaverine, and putrescine). They can also be classied as volatile (phenylethylamine) and nonvolatile (histamine, cadaverine, putrescine, spermine, agmatine, tryptamine, and tyramine) BAs (EFSA, 2011). Figure 4.1 shows the chemical structures of the most important amines.
