Abstract:The derivatization effects of three different derivatization agents were investigated，and a method of pre-column derivatization-high performance liquid chromatography with SPD diode array was established for the determination of taurine in formula powder for special medical use.The formula powder was dissolved in warm water and extracted with ultrasound.The extract was pre-column derivatized with 3 different agents:2，4-dinitrofluorobenzene（DNFB），dansulfonyl chloride（Dansyl-Cl），and O-phthalaldehyde（OPA）.The high performance liquid chromatography with SPD diode array was conducted with ammonium acetate solution（pH4.2）-acetonitrile as the mobile phase.The effects of the three derivatizing agents on the determination of taurine were investigated from total detection time，operation steps，recovery rate，sample stability，and accuracy.The results showed that within the taurine concentration range of 2.01 μg/mL-60.30 μg/mL，the linear relationship was good，with the correlation coefficients all above 0.999.The recovery rates ranged from 94.4% to 103.7% at the spiked levels of 20，40 and 80 mg/100 g.The three derivatizing agents met the requirements for the determination of taurine in formula powder for special medical use，and the determination results had no significant difference from that in the real samples.Considering the whole detection and analysis process，the suitability of the three derivatizing agents were DNFB＞Dansyl-Cl＞OPA.