A STUDY OF THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE ALUMINUM OXIDE-TRIHYDROXYINDOLE PROCEDURE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF CATECHOLAMINES
- Departments of Psychiatry, and Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Ftorida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida
Abstract
A reliable, quantitative, highly sensitive, adaptable method for the estimation of catecholamines in diverse biological material from various vertebrate species is presented in detail. This method, which differs in several significant aspects from other procedures, involves the selective adsorption of the catecholamines onto a constant amount of aluminum oxide, elution with constant volume of perchlonic acid (0.05 N) and their measurement by the formation of a fluorescent trihydroxyindole derivative in the presence of potassium ferricyanide and alkaline (10 N alkali) ascorbate. In the light of our findings several other procedures have been critically evaluated.
In a comparative study on the distribution of norepinephrine and epinephnine in several species, their presence was detected in the poison gland of a snake.
From a study of a large number of analogs of norepinephrine the specificity of the method has been more clearly delineated.
Footnotes
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- Received August 10, 1962.
