title: Facile analysis of short-chain fatty acids as 4-nitrophenyl esters in complex anaerobic fermentation samples by high performance liquid chromatography.
abstract: Short-chain fatty acids are crucial intermediates in the conversion of biomass to methane. Due to the complexity of raw biomass, volatile fatty acids (including n- and branched-chain compounds) as well as arylacetic and arylpropionic acids arise from digestion of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids. The development of a simple extraction procedure in combination with internal standardization and facile 4-nitrophenyl-labelling via oxalylchloride-generated acylchlorides enabled robust separation and quantification of the target compounds in crude biological samples like raw cattle manure and biogas fermenter contents. Detection limits of <100 μM and error rates of less than 4% for the quantification of individual compounds in a concentration range up to 50 mM for non-diluted samples suggest that the novel method might be of general advantage for the routine quantification of short-chain fatty acids in complex biological samples including complex fermentation media.
authors.affiliation: FH Aachen, Institut für Nano- und Biotechnologien, Heinrich-Mussmann-Str. 1, 52428 Jülich, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schiffels
authors.forename: Marcus E M
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Baumann
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Selmer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D056804:Biofuels / Q000032:analysis; D002417:Cattle; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D004952:Esters / Q000032:analysis*; D005232:Fatty Acids, Volatile / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D005285:Fermentation; D008372:Manure / Q000032:analysis*; D009596:Nitrophenols / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D004952:Esters; D005232:Fatty Acids, Volatile; D008372:Manure; D009596:Nitrophenols; C024719:4-nitrophenyl