Taurine (2-aminoethanesulfonic acid) was quantitated by reversed-phase chromatography on a C18 Resolve column using a linear gradient of 9-11% methanol in water. Glutamine was used as the internal standard. Pre-column derivatization of the amino acid with o-phthalaldehyde allowed the detection of as little as 0.1 pmol taurine. Dual ion-exchange column chromatography was employed to remove other amino acids and metabolic precursors of taurine from the samples. Cysteic acid and cysteine sulfinic acid did not interfere with taurine analysis by the high-performance liquid chromatographic method. For sample deproteinization, boiling and picric acid precipitation were used. Recovery of taurine averaged 93.5 +/- 5.0% (means +/- standard error of the mean) from standard solutions and was not affected by the method of deproteinization. Using this procedure, plasma taurine concentrations for the rat and chick were determined to be 100.7 +/- 13.1 microM and 108.0 +/- 0.3 microM, respectively. Recovery of taurine from plasma samples averaged 97.2 +/- 4.7%.