Isotachophoresis : the separation of amino acids

There are several instrumental methods of analysis available for amino acids. The most important ones are ion-exchange chromatography (Stein and Moore), gas chromatography and paper chromatography. These techniques all have various disadvantages; the time for analysis may be long or the sample treatment complicated and non-reproducible or the detector may be poor. Electrophoretic methods using gel or paper are also available for separating amino acids or their derivatives, but as in chromatography none of them is entirely satisfactory. Hence separation of amino acids by isotachophoresis is being investigated and various approaches are described in this paper.