Vitamins
Vitamins are complex organic compounds required in trace amounts
for normal growth, reproduction, health and general metabolism. The way they
are analysed depends on whether the vitamin is fat soluble or water soluble. A
wide range of different methods are used including HPLC, chemical and
microbiological and these often give unreliable results.
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overview |
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|
| Name |
Molecule |
soluble in |
analysed with |
| A |
retinol, beta-carotenoids |
fat |
HPLC |
| B1 |
Thiamine |
water |
micro |
| B2 |
Riboflavin |
water |
|
| B5 |
pantothenic acid |
water |
|
| B6 |
Pyridoxine |
water |
|
| B8 |
biotin |
water |
|
| B12 |
Cyanocobalamin |
water |
|
| C |
Ascorbic acid |
water |
fluoro |
D1
D3 |
Ergocalciferol
cholecalciferol |
fat |
hplc |
| E |
Tocopherol |
fat |
|
| K1 |
Phylloquinon |
fat |
|
| K3 |
Menadione |
fat |
|
| PP |
Niacin, niacinamide |
water |
|
|
Folic acid |
water |
|
The current methodologies for water based vitamin analysis are
generally highly manipulative, imprecise or insensitive. Microbiological
methodologies are fairly sensitive but they are often extremely time consuming
and unreliable. HPLC methodologies, while more reliable are often not sensitive
enough and are subject to matrice effects.
The determination of
water-soluble vitamins is very important in food, clinical and pharmaceutical
analysis. The separation of vitamin C and the B- vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6
and B12) is possible using gradient elution and ion-pair-technique. This is a
very fast and easy method for the separation of a very complex mixture of
vitamins.
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