No abstract

A standard mixture of 25 short-chain fatty acids was resolved by highperformance liquid chromatography, using an Aminex HPX-87 column. The acids produced in culture media by anaerobic bacteria were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography after extraction with ether and reextraction into a small volume of 0.1 N NaOH. The presence of fumaric acid in culture extracts of Peptostreptococcus anaerobius was confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of the trapped eluent fractions from the high-performance liquid chromatography column.

Mycolic acids were detected in both reference strains and clinical isolates of mycobacteria by using gas chromatography of fatty acid methyl esters prepared by acid methanolysis. The methyl esters were extracted with hexane, concentrated, and analyzed with a gas chromatograph by using two different injector temperatures. When the samples were analyzed at high injector temperatures of 300 to 350°C, characteristic thermal cleavage products from mycolic acids, C220, C240, or C260 fatty acid methyl esters, were detected. When analyzed at injector temperatures of 235°C or lower, the mycolic acids were heat stable and the characteristic methyl ester cleavage products were not observed.

The use of a flexible, fused-silica capillary column for gas-liquid chromatographic analysis of bacterial fatty acids is illustrated with Propionibacterium acnes, Propionibacterium shermanii, and a standard methyl ester mixture. Determination of bacterial fatty acid compo-done on glass columns of varying lengths, with sition by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) has internal diameters generally from 2 to 4 mm, proved to be a valuable additional means for packed with polar or nonpolar stationary-phase rapid identification of a variety of bacteria (2, 4, materials (4). Not all of the acids in a complex 6, 10). Recent examples in this laboratory are bacterial mixture, however, are separated on Legionella pneumophila and some Legionellapacked columns, and some appear as shoulders like organisms (1, 5, 9). In general, the GLC on the leading or trailing edge of other peaks in analysis of fatty acids (as methyl ester) has been the GLC chromatogram (4). Increased separa-P.d* No. Idetity

A procedure was developed for the separation of ubiquinones by high-pressure liquid chromatography on a reverse-phase C18 column. Ubiquinones Q6 through Q14 were resolved in 20 min and were distinguished from menaquinones by comparing UV spectra at 248 and 275 nm.