Conservation of amino-acid chromatograms.

IN filter-paper partition chromatography, the ninhydrin reaction has been used almost exclusively for the identification and quantitative assay of amino-acids. One of the chief disadvantages of the blue pigment formed in this reaction is its rapid fading on filter-paper chromatograms. This makes it difficult to construct permanent or semi-permanent reference maps from which not only the type of amino-acid, but also the approximate quantity of the unknown mixture, can be deduced.