DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF AN HPLC METHOD FOR SIMULTANEOUS QUANTIFICATION OF ACESULFAME-K, SACCHARIN, ASPARTAME, CAFFEINE AND BENZOIC ACID IN COLA SOFT DRINKS
ION TRANDAFIR *1, VIOLETA NOUR 2, MIRA ELENA IONICA 2 (1) UNIVERSITY OF CRAIOVA, FACULTY OF CHEMISTRY, BLVD. CALEA BUCURESTI
NO.107 I, CRAIOVA, ROMANIA
(2) UNIVERSITY OF CRAIOVA, FACULTY OF HORTICULTURE, STR. A.I. CUZA NO. 13,
CRAIOVA, ROMANIA
A simple, selective, and precise reversed-phase HPLC method has been developed for the simultaneous quantification of acesulfame-K, saccharin, aspartame, caffeine and benzoic acid in no-added sugar cola soft drinks. The chromatographic separation was performed by using potassium dihydrogen orthophosphate buffer (pH = 4.3) and acetonitrile (88:12, v/v) as mobile phase, a DS Hypersil C 18.5 μm column (250 mm ± 4.6 mm) and "diode array" detection at λ= 227 nm for acesulfame-K, λ= 265 nm for saccharin and λ= 217 nm for aspartame, caffeine and benzoic acid. The analysis time was less than 40 min. The calibration curves showed good linearity over the concentration range of 0-100 mg/L. The validation of the analysis method was attempted in terms of sensitivity, linearity range, reproducibility, repeatability, analytical recovery and robustness.
