Ninhydrin Loaded Microcapsules for Detection of Natural Free Amino Acid
Suhui Jeong,
Yeji Jeon,
Jaehun Mun,
Se Min Jeong,
Huiling Liang,
Kyeongwoon Chung,
Pyong-In Yi,
Beum-Soo An,
Sungbaek Seo
Affiliations
Suhui Jeong
Department of Biomaterials Science (BK21 FOUR Program), College of Natural Resources and Life Science/Life and Industry Convergence Research Institute, Pusan National University, Miryang 50463, Republic of Korea
Yeji Jeon
Department of Biomaterials Science (BK21 FOUR Program), College of Natural Resources and Life Science/Life and Industry Convergence Research Institute, Pusan National University, Miryang 50463, Republic of Korea
Jaehun Mun
Department of Biomaterials Science (BK21 FOUR Program), College of Natural Resources and Life Science/Life and Industry Convergence Research Institute, Pusan National University, Miryang 50463, Republic of Korea
Se Min Jeong
Department of Biomaterials Science (BK21 FOUR Program), College of Natural Resources and Life Science/Life and Industry Convergence Research Institute, Pusan National University, Miryang 50463, Republic of Korea
Huiling Liang
Tea Research Institute, Zhejiang University, 268 Kaixuan Road, Hangzhou 310029, China
Kyeongwoon Chung
Department of Biofibers and Biomaterials Science, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Republic of Korea
Pyong-In Yi
Department of Bioenvironmental Energy, College of Natural Resource and Life Science, Pusan National University, Miryang 50463, Republic of Korea
Beum-Soo An
Department of Biomaterials Science (BK21 FOUR Program), College of Natural Resources and Life Science/Life and Industry Convergence Research Institute, Pusan National University, Miryang 50463, Republic of Korea
Sungbaek Seo
Department of Biomaterials Science (BK21 FOUR Program), College of Natural Resources and Life Science/Life and Industry Convergence Research Institute, Pusan National University, Miryang 50463, Republic of Korea
Natural free amino acids present in plant extracts or tea infusions provide a unique flavor and potential effect on anxiety and blood pressure reduction. Accordingly, quantifying free amino acids in foods has been of interest to food science and analytical research fields. The ninhydrin solution-based assay is a colorimetric method based on the formation and detection of Ruhemann’s purple complex. Media-based colorimetric detection requires specialized facilities and personnel; moreover, it can suffer from the interference of the analyte color. In this study, we developed ninhydrin-loaded microcapsules and a simple free amino acids detection procedure, by simply dipping the microcapsules into the analyte solution for 3 min. Among the five tested natural free amino acids, theanine exhibited the highest colorimetric response to microcapsule-based detection, with a limit of detection of 0.826 mM.
