Heterocyclic aromatic amines HAAs

Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA) are carcinogenic compounds that may occur in food. They are probably formed during cooking processes by the pyrolysis of amino acids and proteins. Since the mid 1990s, LC-MS plays a role in the analysis and characterization of these HAA. Both ESI-MS and APCl-MS are applied. A recent special issne of Journal of Chromatography B [82] emphasizes the analytical challenges related to HAA. The stractnres of the most abundant HAA in cooked food are shown in Figure 14.10. 

TABLE 2. Major aza-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA) found in cooked meat products and polluted environments... 

Aromatic amines (AAs) and heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) are ubiquitous environmental and dietary contaminants, many of which are carcinogens. Compounds of both classes contain an exocydic amino group, which is a prerequisite for their genotoxicity (Figure 7.1). In this chapter, the sources of exposure, mechanisms of metabolic activation, formation and detection of DNA adducts, and biological effects of AA-DNA and HAA-DNA adducts are highlighted. 

Riching, E., Herderich, M., and Schreier, P., High performance liquid chromatography-electrospray tandum mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS-MS) for the analysis of heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA), Chromatographia, 42, 7-11, 1996. 

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