Fast Determination of Multiple-Reaction Intermediates for Long-Chain Dicarboxylic Acid Biotransformation by Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detector

For the analysis of multiple-reaction intermediates for long-chain dicarboxylic acid biotransformation, simple and reproducible methods of extraction and derivatization were developed on the basis of gas chromatography with flame ionization detector (GC-FID) instead of mass spectrometry. In the derivatization step, change of the ratio of pyridine to MSTFA from 1:3 to 9:1 resulted in higher peak intensity (p = 0.021) and reproducibility (0.6%CV) when analyzing 32 g/l ricinoleic acid (RA). Extraction of RA and omega-hydroxyundec-9-enoic acid with water containing 100 mM Tween 80 showed 90.4-99.9% relative extraction efficiency and 2-7%CV compared with those with hydrophobic ethyl acetate. In conclusion, reduction of the pyridine content and change of the extraction solvent to water with Tween 80 provided compatible derivatization and extraction methods to GC-FID-based analysis of long-chain carboxylic acids.