Separation of adrenaline, noradrenaline, and hydroxytyramine by ion exchange chromatography.

Methods for the separation of adrenaline, noradrenaline, hydroxytyramine, and dihydroxyphenylalanine (dopa) by employing starch columns (2, 3), paper chromatography (4-7), or countercurrent extraction (8) have limited usage either because of the length of time required for the fractionation or because of the small amounts of material that can be separated. A procedure is described below in which the weak cation exchange resin Amberlite IRC-50 is used to effect the separation of adrenaline, noradrenaline, hydroxytyramine, and dopa in less time than that required by previous methods and in amounts which vary from 0.02 to 1.0 mg.