Determination of cyclamate in low-calorie foods by high-performance liquidchromatography with indirect visible photometry

A rapid and simple method using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chro matography combined with indirect visible photometry at 433 nm was develope d to determine cyclamate in some food samples. Cyclamate was not detected i n these chosen samples as its use is banned in Hong Kong. Cyclamate can eas ily be detected in spiked samples using a mobile phase consisting of 30 mu mol dm(-3) Methyl Red and 0.02 mol dm(-3) phosphate buffer (pH 7.0)-methano l in a volume ratio of 3:2. The column temperature was set at 23 degrees C. The detection limit was 0.14 mmol dm(-3) and the relative standard deviati on of the peak area response was 0.58% for a solution containing 5.0 mmol d m(-3) of cyclamate (n = 8). This method was successfully applied to the ana lysis of eight spiked food samples and the cyclamate recoveries for these s amples ranged from 93 to 99%.