Planta Med 1995; 61(1): 66-70
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-958002
Paper

© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Screening for Non-Protein Amino Acids in Seeds of the Guam Cycad, Cycas circinalis, by an Improved GC-MS Method

Chang-Hwan Oh, Delia M. Brownson, T. J. Mabry
  • Department of Botany, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78713-7640, U.S.A.
Further Information

Publication History

1994

1994

Publication Date:
04 January 2007 (online)

Abstract

The non-protein amino acid, β-N-methyl-amino-L-alanine (L-BMAA) from Cycas circinalis seeds, has been implicated as a causative agent of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - Parkinsonism dementia complex (ALS-PDC), a disease known from Guam and other areas in the western Pacific. We analyzed C. circinalis seeds for additional free non-protein amino acids by a recently developed GC-MS method. The samples were prepared by water extraction of seed flour. The amino acids present in the extract were derivatized by N(O,S)-isobutyloxycarbonylation of the amine functional groups and then tert-butyldimethylsilylation of the carboxyl functional groups. Peaks for a total of seventeen derivatives of non-protein amino acids were detected by GC-MS. In addition to L-BMAA, four other non-protein amino acids were identified as β-alanine, γ-aminobutyric acid, pyroglutamic acid, and α-aminoadipic acid.