Confirmation and Determination of Sugars in Soft Drink Products by IEC with ESI-MS

• Published in: Chromatographia 2009-04, Vol.69 (7-8), p.761-764
• Main Authors: Chen, Zuliang, Jin, Xiaoyin, Wang, Qinqping, Lin, Yuman, Gan, Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analytical Chemistry; Biological and medical sciences; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chromatography; Food industries; Full Short Communication; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Laboratory Medicine; Non alcoholic beverage industries and mineral waters; Pharmacy; Proteomics
• ISSN: 0009-5893; 1612-1112
• DOI: 10.1365/s10337-009-0969-3

In this paper, ion-exclusion chromatography with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry was investigated as an alternative method to confirm and determine sugar (glucose, fructose and sucrose) using volatile acidic eluent. Under the positive or negative ionization mode, the ESI-MS provided reasonable signals from positive ion mode as [M+H]⁺ and [M+NH₄]⁺, or from negative ion mode as [M-H]⁻ and [M+Cl-H]⁻. However, higher mass spectral intensity for ions was obtained under the positive mode. The separation of target sugars was achieved within 8 min using an eluent containing 0.1% (v/v) acetic acid. Linear plots of peak area versus concentration were obtained over the range 20-5,000 μg L⁻¹. The detection limits of these compounds ranged from 10 to 15 μg L⁻¹. The proposed method was used for the confirmation and quantification of sugars in soft drinks.