Studies on ergothioneine. V. Determination by high performance liquid chromatography and application to metabolic research.

The high performance liquid chromatographic procedure was established for the determination of ergothioneine in biological materials. The procedure is also applicable to the purification of 3H-ergothioneine. The metabolism of ergothioneine given to rats was very slow ; the ergothioneine was not disappear even after 1 week fasting. The ergothioneine administrated was mostly concentrated in the liver and the level was 10 times as high as that in blood. All ergothioneine in the blood was found in blood corpuscles 24 hr after the administration.