JPP’s Patents

The chemistry behind Patent 1 is designed to allow JPP’s hydrindantin-free reagents to be used on amino acid analysers as presently universally configured– ie on ‘single heating chamber’ instruments.

The straightforward and inexpensive instrument modifications envisaged in and protected by JPP’s Patents 2 & 3, however, allow greater sensitivity and superior analytical performance to be achieved. These patents outline and protect two different methods of analysis:

• Patent 2 introduces a pre-heating stage to the analysis process,
• Patent 3 reveals an entirely new method, in which a photochemical reaction (induced by U/V light irradiation) takes place that causes hydrindantin in precisely controllable amounts to be produced at room temperature.

Patent 1

Patent 1 involves the inclusion of a special compound in the ninhydrin reagent, which can best be described as a: temperature dependent reducing agent (TDRA). A TDRA embraces a small group of compounds with specific kinetic characteristics of reduction suitable for use in the presence of ninhydrin.

At room temperature, the TDRA is inert and no reaction occurs. However, at high temperature the TDRA reacts quickly to form hydrindantin just where it is needed to help form RP, which is in the heated reaction chamber. This ground-breaking discovery means that ninhydrin reagents containing a TDRA are:

• free from the very troublesome hydrindantin at ambient temperature
• very stable in air and
• last at least 3 years with no change in sensitivity of analysis.

The ninhydrin reagents protected by this patent are specifically formulated to work within a single heated reaction chamber, which is common to all present AAA instruments.

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Patent 2

Patent 2 also involves the use of ninhydrin reagents containing a TDRA, but under this patented methodology they are used on instruments modified to include a pre-heater (or a ‘pre-heater’ section of a single heating chamber). Under this method, hydrindantin is produced in a newly-envisaged pre-heater (or pre-heater section) before entering a second heated reaction chamber, where RP is formed. The net effect of this combination is the achievement of higher levels of sensitivity of detection and more precise control over the production of hydrindantin. All present AAA instruments can easily be converted into a two-stage heating system as described above.

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Patent 3

The concepts behind Patent 3 are entirely novel and embrace a totally different concept. The method set out in the patent uses an analytical approach whereby there is no need to heat the reagent to a high temperature before enough hydrindantin is produced to enable analysis to take place. The basic principle behind this technology is the creation of a photochemical reaction using UV light.

A simple reagent comprising only ninhydrin, a solvent and a buffer is irradiated with UV light to generate selected quantities of hydrindantin ‘in-line’ at room temperature. This new method is unique because it gives users unprecedented total control of hydrindantin concentration immediately before exposure to the heated reaction coil. Concentrations of hydrindantin in-line are regulated electronically, either by use of an analogue dial or digitally using computer software and can therefore instantly be changed to suit eluent flow rates and reaction times of the colour-forming coil. Detection sensitivities thus remain at maximum levels regardless of chromatographic conditions.

Click image to enlarge.