[Influences of ion-suppressors on retention behaviors of nine food additives in reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic separation].

The influences of ion-suppressors on retention behaviors of nine food additives, i.e., acesulfame, saccharin, caffeine, aspartame, benzoic acid, sorbic acid, stevioside, dehydroacetic acid and neotame in reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) separation were investigated. The organic modification effects of acids, i. e. , trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and buffer salts, i. e. , TFA-ammonium acetate (AmAc) were studied emphatically. The relationships between retention factors of solutes and volume percentages of ion-suppressors in the mobile phase systems of acetonitrile-TFA aqueous solution and acetonitrile-TFA-AmAc aqueous solution were quantitatively established, separately. The separation of nine food additives was completed by a gradient elution with acetonitrile-TFA (0.01%, v/v)-AmAc (2. 5 mmol/L) aqueous solution as the mobile phases. An RP-HPLC method was established for the simultaneous determination of nine food additives in red wine. In the range of 10. 0 - 100. 0 mg/L, nine food additives showed good linearity with the correlation coefficients ( r2 ) larger than 0. 999 1. The limits of detection (LODs) were in the range of 0. 33 - 2. 36 mg/L and the limits of quantification (LOQs) were in the range of 1. 11 - 7. 80 mg/L. The spiked recoveries were between 87. 61% and 108. 4% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 2. 2% -9. 4%. These results are of referential significance for the rapid establishment and accu- rate optimization of RP-HPLC separation for the simultaneous determination of food additives in other foods.