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

Abstract

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.

Keywords

acesulfame-K saccharin aspartame caffeine benzoic acid HPLC "diode array" detection light cola