Short Communication Urinary Amino Acids Profiles in Vegetarians and Non-vegetarians: Comparison of 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.