2252 10 archive 2 disk0/00/00/22/52 2008-07-01 14:11:31 2008-07-01 15:28:09 2008-07-01 14:11:31 article show Chia, Yoke Yin Ton, So Har Monash University Malaysia. School of Arts and Sciences pub R none Urinary amino acids, vegetarians, non-vegetarians, thin layer chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography Urinary amino acids were determined in 162 individuals (62 young non-vegetarians, 24 elderly non-vegetarians, 40 young vegetarians and 36 elderly vegetarians) by thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The two methods used in this study were compared. The difference in the percentage frequencies of detection by TLC and HPLC in non-vegetarian group was found to be similar for amino acids like histidine, isoleucine, valine, glycine and serine while variations were observed in the other amino acids (p>0.05). The difference in the percentage frequencies of detection by TLC and HPLC in vegetarian group was found to be similar for amino acids like histidine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, valine, glycine, asparagine and serine while variation were observed in other amino acids (p>0.05). The difference of percentage frequencies by TLC and HPLC was not significant within the vegetarian and non-vegetarian groups (p>0.05). Urinary isoleucine was not detected in vegetarians by both methods while urinary leucine, aspartic acid and alanine were also not detected in any of the vegetarian and non-vegetarian individuals by both detection methods. It could be concluded that, if a rapid and simple method is required for qualitative detection of urinary amino acids, TLC would be a suitable technique. 2006 published Malaysian Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 13 1 Malaysian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 56-60 TRUE ISSN 1511-2616 http://ejum.fsktm.um.edu.my/ArticleInformation.aspx?ArticleID=595 1. Elliot WH and Elliot DC. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Australia: Oxford University Press, 2001. 2. Nelson DL and Cox MM. Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. United States of America: Worth Publishers, 2000. 3. Pesce AJ, Clyne DH, Pollak VE, Kant SK, Foulkes EC and Selenke WM. Renal Tubular Interactions of Protein; Clin Biochem, 1980; 13(5): 209 - 215. 4. Griffith J and Omar H. Association between vegetarian diet and menstrual problems in young women: A case presentation and brief review: J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol, 2003; (16): 319 - 323. 5. Babu SSV, Shareef MM, Pavan Kumar Shetty, A and Taranath Shetty K. HPLC method for amino acids profile in biological fluids and inborn metabolic disorders of aminoacidopathies. Indian J Clin Biochem; 2002; 17 (2):7 - 26. 6. Varley H, Gowenlock AH and Bell M. Practical Clinical Biochemistry; William Heinimann; 1998; pp; 850 - 910. 7. Carroll MF and Temte JL. Proteinuria in adults: A diagnostic approach: Am Fam Physician, 2000; 62(6): 1333 - 1340. 8. Walker V. and Mills GA. Quantitative methods for amino acid analysis in biological fluids. Ann Clin Biochem, 1995; 32 (1): 28 - 57. 9. Gomber S, Dewan P and Dua T. Homocystinuria: A Rare Cause of Megaloblastic Anemia; Indian J Pediatr, 2004;(41): 941-943. 10. Dwyer JT. Nutrition Consequences of Vegetarianism: Ann Rev Nutr, 1991; (11): 61 - 91. 11. Touchstone, J.C. (1992) Practice of Thin Layer Chromatography, 3rd ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Canada, USA. Pp: 1 - 29. 12. American Chemical Society (2000) Mastering the art of HPLC http://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/tcaw/00/aug/dong.html Date accessed: 4 December 2004