Ninhydrin is commonly used in chemical analysis to detect amino acids and proteins especially in techniques like chromatography and in forensic science for developing fingerprints.

The purpose of ninhydrin is to react with free amino groups in amino acids to produce a colored compound allowing their identification and analysis.

Ninhydrin is a pale yellow crystalline chemical compound that reacts with amino acids to form a deep blue or purple color known as Ruhemanns purple making it highly useful as a detection reagent.