Multisyringe Chromatography (MSC): An Effective and Low Cost Tool for Water-Soluble Vitamin Separation

Abstract

The advent of monolithic columns has facilitated the combination of chromatographic techniques with nonseparation flow techniques by virtue of the low overpressure introduced by them. Thus far, these combinations have provided excellent results derived from the high selectivity of liquid chromatography and ease of sample handling in nonseparation flow techniques. The joint use of multisyringe flow injection analysis and monolithic columns has provided multisyringe chromatography (MSC).

Simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of ascorbic acid, nicotinic acid, nicotinamide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine hydrochloride, and riboflavin in commercial drinks using a MSC method, is described in this contribution as an inexpensive alternative to classical HPLC. The MSC method provides baseline separation of all these compounds with resolutions values greater than 2, except for B1 and B6 with resolution of 1,2.

A ChromolithTM Flash RP-18e (50 mm × 4.6 mm) column, a multisyringe burette provided with two 10 mL high-precision bidirectional syringes and an 8-port multiposition valve were used for a dual isocratic chromatographic separation in our study.

Keywords:

• Monolithic column
• Multisyringe chromatography (MSC)
• Multi-syringe flow-injection
• Water soluble vitamins

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project CTQ2010-15541) for economic support, and to the Balearic Government and the European Social Fund for providing Mailen Fernández a doctoral fellowship (AP2007-03788).

Notes

^a Mean ± standard deviation, n = 5.