A direct quantitative paper chromatography of amino acids and its application to the urinary excretions of some human ethnic groups

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Abstract
Conditions of running two-dimensional paper-sheet partition chromatograms of mixtures of amino acids (and derivatives), and of developing band colorations with ninhydrin, have been studied with a view to furnishing sheets suitable for direct transmission photometry with a refined type of densitometer. The recommended conditions, coupled with the simplest form of photometry afforded by the densitometer, make the mean of triplicate assays as reliable as the mean of about one hundred replicates in the procedure recommended by Block et al. (1955). By the refined methods an exploratory survey has been made of the rates of urinary excretion of glycine, taurine, [beta]-aminoisobutyric acid, alanine and glutamine by members of one aboriginal (Senoi) and two civilized (European and Southern Chinese) ethnic groups living on Singapore Island and in the Federation of Malaya. The work involved a preliminary study of "desalting" techniques. Cystine excretion rates, estimated polaro-graphically, were included in the survey. Attention has been drawn to the more salient aspects of ethnic-group differentiation and correspondence suggested by the results of the survey.