Determination of alpha-hydroxy acids in cosmetic products by high-performance liquid chromatography with a narrow-bore column.

This paper reports the results of a study carried out to develop a simple, rapid and sensitive method for the separation, identification and quantitative measurement of alpha-hydroxy acids in commercial cosmetics using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This method is successfully applied to the simultaneous identification and quantitative determination of glycolic, lactic, malic, tartaric and citric acids employing a reversed phase narrow-bore column under isocratic condition and UV detection. The method is validated by determining the precision of replicate analyses and accuracy by analyzing samples with and without adding know amount of the alpha-hydroxy acids. The procedure is suitable for routine analyses of commercial cosmetics.

Maillard reaction in mild-based foods: nutritional consequences.

Chemical reactions occurring during industrial treatments or storage foods can lead to the formation of epsilon-deoxyketosyl compounds, the Amadori products. Food protein value can be adversely affected by these reactions, and in particular lysine, an essential amino acid having on its side chain a free amino group, can be converted to nonbioavailable N-substituted lysine or blocked lysine. by acid hydrolysis of epsilon-deoxyketosyl compounds, furosine is formed. In this paper furosine prepared from milk-based commercial products has been evaluated by use of a recently developed HPLC method using a microbore column and phosphate buffer as the mobile phase at controlled temperature. Furosine levels have been used, together with protein, total amino acids, and lysine content, as an estimate of protein quality of a few different products such as cooked-cream dessert, yogurt mousse, white chocolate, milk chocolate, milk chocolate with a soft nougat and caramel center, milk chocolate with a whipped white center, chocolate spread, part-skim milk tablets, milk-based dietetic meals, and baby foods. The protein content of the analyzed products ranged from 34.3 gxkg(-1) (milk nougat) to 188.4 g x kg(-1) (milk tablets). The Maillard reaction caused a loss in available lysine that varied from 2.5% (cooked cream) to 36.2% (condensed milk). The contribution to the lysine average daily requirement is heavily affected by this reaction and varied from 13% (milk tablets and soft nougat) to 61% (dietetic meal). Variable results were also obtained for the other essential amino acids.

Separation of alditols of interest in food products by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection.

High-performance anion-exchange chromatography (HPAEC)-pulsed amperometric detection (PAD) employing a CarboPac MA 1 column was investigated with respect to mobile phase composition, linear response characteristics, repeatability, reproducibility and sensitivity with different alditols used as sugar substitutes in food and confectionery products. The energy-reduced bulk sweeteners isomalt and maltitol were well resolved in less than 25 min by isocratic elution with 600 mM sodium hydroxide solution. HPAEC-PAD was also successfully applied to the determination of alditols in sugar-free products and a low-calorie sweetener containing sorbitol, mannitol and fructose at different levels.