Determination of biogenic amines in a fermented beverage, boza

Biogenic amines are basic nitrogenous compounds formed mainly by decarboxylation of amino acids or by amination and transamination of aldehydes and ketones. High levels of these compounds may cause some health problems, such as hypotension or hypertension, nausea, headache, rash, dizziness, cardiac palpitation and emesis. Fermented foods have potential for containing high levels of biogenic amines. Boza is a traditional fermented beverage in Turkey, as well as in East European countries, Balkans and Egypt. It is produced from millet, cooked maize, wheat or rice semolina/flour by fermentation with yeast and lactic acid bacteria. In this study, 21 samples of boza were analyzed for their tryptamine, beta-phenyl ethyl amine, putrescine, cadaverine, histamine and tyramine contents by HPLC after derivatization with dansyl chloride. The detection limits of HIS, TRY, TYR, PUT, CAD and PHA were 0.03; 0.04; 0.04; 0.09; 0.11 and 0.05 mg kg(-1), respectively; while the limits of quantification were 0.1; 0.12; 0.12; 0.18; 0.30 and 0.15 mg kg(-1), respectively. A wide variation was determined in the biogenic amine contents of boza samples. Of the 21 boza samples, 18 (90%) contained at least one of six screened biogenic amines. Total biogenic amine contents ranged from 1.67 to 101.14 mg kg(-1). The highest tyramine, cadaverine, tryptamine, putrescine, beta-phenylethylamine and histamine contents were 82.79; 17.69; 13.78; 9.80; 4.53 and 4.07 mg kg(-1), respectively. Although the biogenic amine contents of boza samples were lower than the recommended toxic limits, this product could be considered as a potentially risky food since the wide variation for biogenic amine contents