NITROGEN PHOSPHORUS DETECTOR POTENTIAL IN TROPANE ALKALOID GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY

A gas chromatographic (GC) nitrogen-phosphorus detector (NPD) is compared with a flame ionization detector (FID) for the quantitation of some important tropane alkaloids present in plant material. Though slightly cumbersome in routine work, NPD has a distinct sensitivity advantage over FID for these alkaloids. An injector of the programmed temperature vaporizer (PTV) type permitted extension of the range of solvents which may be employed for the preparation of alkaloid samples for GC assays in which detection is to be accomplished by NPD.