Determination of sugar alcohols in confectioneries by high-performance liquid chromatography after nitrobenzoylation

A method was developed for the determination of sugar alcohols, meso-erythr itol, xylitol, D-glucitol, D-mannitol, maltitol and parachinit by high-perf ormance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The sugar alcohols were converted int o strong ultraviolet (UV)-absorbing derivatives with p-nitrobenzoyl chlorid e. HPLC was performed on a phenyl column, using acetonitrile-water (67:33) as mobile phase and UV detection (260 nm). The calibration curves for all s ugar alcohols tested were linear in the 10-250 mu g/ml range. The average r ecoveries of the sugar alcohols from four sugarless confectioneries spiked at 5 and 10% levels of six sugar alcohol standards ranged from 73.2 to 109. 0% with relative standard deviations ranging from 0.7 to 9.0%. The detectio n limit of the developed method was 0.1% for the above sugar alcohols conta ined in the samples. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.