A study of the behaviour of some sixty amino-acids and other ninhydrin-reacting substances on phenol-‘collidine’ filter-paper chromatograms, with notes as to the occurrence of some of them in biological fluids

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Abstract
The 2-dimensional filter -paper method of partition chromatography was applied to some 60 amino acids and other ninhydrin-reacting substances, using phenol and collidine. A map is shown giving the positions taken by these substances on the paper square. With additional tests the method can be applied to the identification of all the ninhydrin-reacting substances likely to be present in biological fluids. The ninhydrin color reaction as used here is positive for many aliphatic amines and also for beta-, gamma-, delta-, and epsilon-amino acids. Peculiarities in the behavior of glutamic acid, and to a lesser extent of aspartic acid, suggest that there are unknown facts in the chemistry of these substances. Deaminized casein when hydrolyzed contains only a trace of lysine and an ample quantity of alpha-amino-epsilon-hydroxycaproic acid. Apart from the common amino acids, the following substances were found in biological fluids by this method of analysis: beta-alanine, alpha-amino-n-butyric acid, gamma-aminobutyric acid, ethanolamine, ethanolaminephosphoric acid, histamine, methionine sulfoxide, and methylhistidine. In addition, mention is made of 4 common but unidentified substances that have been encountered. One ("fast-aminobutyric acid") appears to be a monoaminomono-carboxylic acid, another ("fast-arginine") a new basic amino-acid.