Evaluation of high pressure liquid chromatography and gas-liquid chromatography for quantitative determination of sugars in foods.

A method has been developed for separation and determination of 5 sugars in foods. Mixtures of sugars were separated by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a muBondapak/carbohydrate column and acetonitrile-water (80 + 20) as the mobile phase. For the gas-liquid chromatographic (GLC) determination, the sugars were reacted with hydroxylamine hydrochloride to give the oximes, which were then converted to trimethylsilyl derivatives. The derivatives were separated on an 8 ft column containing 3% JXR as the liquid phase. The GLC preparative time was considerably longer than that for HPLC. Both methods were applied to the determination of fructose, glucose, sucrose, maltose, and lactose in processed foods. Recovery studies showed better accuracy for the HPLC method. Because of incomplete derivatization and/or the formation of anomers, the GLC method was not applicable to all foods.

Butyl ester preparation for gas-liquid chromatographic determination of fatty acids in butter.

Butter oil is extracted from butter with hexane, using a rolling boil technique. The resulting 10% butter oil in hexane is converted to butyl esters, using butanol in place of methanol as specified in the official final action method, 28.063-28.067. A water wash and centrifuge technique is used to remove butanol from the n-hexane-butyl ester solution. Conversions to butyl esters are quantitative by the boron trifluoride, sulfuric acid, and sodium butoxide procedures. When methyl ester methods are used, there are serious losses of the short chain volatile and water-soluble acids, making the methyl ester procedures questionable for determining the authenticity of milk fat.