Amino acids are essential compounds for living organisms, and their determination in biological fluids is crucial for the clinical analysis and diagnosis of many diseases. However, the detection of most amino acids is hindered by the lack of a strong chromophore/fluorophore or electrochemically active group in their chemical structures. The highly sensitive determination of amino acids often requires derivatization. Capillary electrophoresis is a separation technique with excellent characteristics for the analysis of amino acids in biological fluids. Moreover, it offers the possibility of precapillary, on‐capillary, or postcapillary derivatization. Each derivatization approach has specific demands in terms of the chemistry involved in the derivatization, which is discussed in this review. The family of homocyclic o‐dicarboxaldehyde compounds, namely o‐phthalaldehyde, naphthalene‐2,3‐dicarboxaldehyde, and anthracene‐2,3‐dicarboxaldehyde, are powerful derivatization reagents for the determination of amino acids and related compounds. In the presence of suitable nucleophiles they react with the primary amino group to form both fluorescent and electroactive derivatives. Moreover, the reaction rate enables all of the derivatization approaches mentioned above. This review focuses on articles that deal with using these reagents for the derivatization of amino acids and related compounds for ultraviolet‐visible spectrometry, fluorescence, or electrochemical detection. Applications in capillary and microchip electrophoresis are summarized and discussed.

中文翻译：

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杂环邻二甲醛：衍生试剂，用于通过毛细管和微芯片电泳对氨基酸和相关化合物进行敏感分析。

氨基酸是生物体必不可少的化合物，其在生物液体中的测定对于许多疾病的临床分析和诊断至关重要。但是，大多数氨基酸的检测由于其化学结构中缺少强发色团/荧光团或电化学活性基团而受到阻碍。氨基酸的高灵敏度测定通常需要衍生化。毛细管电泳是一种分离技术，具有出色的特性，可用于分析生物流体中的氨基酸。此外，它还提供了毛细管前，毛细管上或毛细管后衍生化的可能性。每种衍生化方法对涉及衍生化的化学都有特殊要求，本综述对此进行了讨论。同素的家庭Ø二羧酸甲醛化合物，即邻苯二甲醛，萘-2,3-二甲苯甲醛和蒽-2,3-二甲醛，是测定氨基酸和相关化合物的强大衍生试剂。在合适的亲核试剂存在下，它们与伯氨基反应形成荧光和电活性衍生物。此外，反应速率使上述所有衍生化方法成为可能。这篇综述着重于使用这些试剂进行氨基酸和相关化合物的衍生化的文章，这些文章用于紫外可见光谱，荧光或电化学检测。总结和讨论了在毛细管电泳和微芯片电泳中的应用。