title: High-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of amino acids in ackee fruit with emphasis on the toxic amino acid hypoglycin A.
abstract: High-performance liquid chromatography is used to determine the amino acid content of ripe and unripe ackee fruit. Specific emphasis is placed on the level of the toxic amino acid hypoglycin A (hyp-A) in the unripe and ripe ackee fruit and seed. Unripe samples are found to contain significantly higher quantities (P < 0.05) of hyp-A when compared with ripe samples. Uncooked unripe fruit is found to contain 124.4 +/- 6.7 mg/100 g fresh weight and uncooked ripe fruit 6.4 +/- 1.1 mg/100 g fresh weight. The seed of the uncooked unripe fruit is found to contain 142.8 +/- 8.8 mg/100 g fresh weight, and the seed of uncooked ripe fruit has 106.0 +/- 5.4 mg/100 g fresh weight. Boiling fruit in water for approximately 30 min is efficient in removing hyp-A from the edible arilli; however, low levels of 0.54 +/- 0.15 mg/200 mL are detected in the water that was used to cook the ripe fruit. The average %recovery of the amino acids was 80.34%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Kingston.
authors.forename: K D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Golden
authors.forename: O J
authors.initials: OJ
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bailey-Shaw
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D003296:Cooking; D007005:Hypoglycins / Q000032:analysis*; D010945:Plants, Edible / Q000737:chemistry*; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D007005:Hypoglycins; C041757:hypoglycin