October 20/Gdansk, Poland/Chemical & Chemistry -- Current study results from the report, "Retention Behavior of Some High-intensity Sweeteners on Different SPE Sorbents," have been published. According to a study from Gdansk, Poland, "The objective of this paper is to provide information about application of solid-phase extraction (SPE) for isolation of nine high-intensity sweeteners (acesulfame-K, alitame, aspartame, cyclamate, dulcin, neotame, saccharin, sucralose and neohesperidin dihydrochalcone) from aqueous solutions. The influence of several types of LC-MS compatible buffers (different pH values and compositions) on their recovery has been studied and discussed."

"A number of commercially available SPE cartridges, such as Chromabond C18ec, Strata-X RP, Bakerbond Octadecyl, Bakerbond SDB-1, Bakerbond SPE Phenyl, Oasis HLB, LiChrolut RP-18, Supelclean LC-18, Discovery DSC-18 and Zorbax C18 were tested in order to evaluate their applicability for the isolation of analytes. Very high recoveries (better than 92%) of all studied compounds were obtained using formic acid-N,N-diisopropylethylamine buffer adjusted to pH 4.5 and C(18)-bonded silica sorbents. Behavior of polymeric sorbents strongly depends on their structure. Strata-X RP behaves much like a C(18)-bonded silica sorbent. Recoveries obtained using Oasis HLB were comparable with those observed for silica-based sorbents. The only compound less efficiently (83%) retained by this sorbent was cyclamate. Bakerbond SDB-1 shows unusual selectivity towards aspartame and alitame. Recoveries of these two sweeteners were very low (26 and 42%, respectively)," wrote A. Zygler and colleagues, University of Technology, Department of Analytical Chemistry.

The researchers concluded, "It was also found that aspartame and alitame can be selectively separated from the mixture of sweeteners using formic acid-triethylamine buffer at pH 3.5."

Zygler and colleagues published their study in Talanta ("Retention Behavior of Some High-intensity Sweeteners on Different SPE Sorbents," Talanta, 2010;82(5):1742-8).

For more information, contact A. Zygler, Gdansk University of Technology, Dept. of Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Faculty, ul G Narutowicza 11, 12, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland.

From the November 1, 2010, Prepared Foods E-dition