A new method for isolation of polyamines from animal tissues

A new method for isolation of polyamines from tissues was developed and compared with the butanol extraction method which has been widely used for quantitative determination of polyamines. In the new method protein-free tissue extracts are applied to a small Dowex-50 column. The column is washed with appropriate buffers to remove ninhydrin-positive contaminants and the polyamines are eluted. With this method, the overall recovery of polyamines, after separation by paper electrophoresis and subsequent colorimetric determination with ninhydrin, is always over 90% (average 95%). This method is much better than the butanol method, which gives variable recoveries of 70–90%. The new method also has the advantages over the butanol method that the isolated polyamines are purer and the procedure is simpler.