Chromatographic techniques for determination of configurations of branched and substituted long-chain fatty acids, both absolute and relative, are reviewed. Gas-liquid chromatographic and thin-layer chromatographic procedures are emphasized.

Compounds with primary amino groups react with o-phthalaldehyde in solution to yield highly fluorescent products. This reaction is now in wide use for detecting amino acids and amines in liquid-chromatography effluents. We report here a method for using o-phthalaldehyde to detect primary amines in the effluent of a gas-liquid-chromatographic column. The effluent gas, nominally 20 mL/min, is del...