title: Simultaneous determination of preservatives (benzoic acid, sorbic acid, methylparaben and propylparaben) in foodstuffs using high-performance liquid chromatography.
abstract: A reversed-phased HPLC method that allows the separation and simultaneous determination of the preservatives benzoic (BA) and sorbic acids (SA), methyl- (MP) and propylparabens (PP) is described. The separations were effected by using an initial mobile phase of methanol-acetate buffer (pH 4.4) (35:65) to elute BA, SA and MP and changing the mobile phase composition to methanol-acetate buffer (pH 4.4) (50:50) thereafter. The detector wavelength was set at 254 nm. Under these conditions, separation of the four components was achieved in less than 23 min. Analytical characteristics of the separation such as limit of detection, limit of quantification, linear range and reproducibility were evaluated. The developed method was applied to the determination of 67 foodstuffs (mainly imported), comprising soft drinks, jams, sauces, canned fruits/vegetables, dried vegetables/fruits and others. The range of preservatives found were from not detected (nd)--1260, nd--1390, nd--44.8 and nd--221 mg kg(-1) for BA, SA, MP and PP, respectively.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia. bahrud@usm.my
authors.forename: Bahruddin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Saad
authors.forename: Md Fazlul
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Bari
authors.forename: Muhammad Idiris
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Saleh
authors.forename: Kamarudzaman
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Mohd Khairuddin Mohd
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Talib
mesh_terms: D019817:Benzoic Acid / Q000032:analysis*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D010226:Parabens / Q000032:analysis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013011:Sorbic Acid / Q000032:analysis*; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
chemical_list: D010226:Parabens; D019817:Benzoic Acid; C015358:methylparaben; D013011:Sorbic Acid; C006068:propylparaben