Green Choline Amino Acid Ionic Liquid Aqueous Two-Phase Extraction Coupled with HPLC for Analysis Sunset Yellow in Beverages

An analytical method based on amino acid ionic liquid aqueous two-phase extraction (ATPE) coupled with HPLC-UV detection has been developed for the determination of sunset yellow in beverages. Experimental parameters of ATPE including ionic liquids, amount of ionic liquids, pH, and temperature were investigated. Under the optimal conditions, sunset yellow within the range of 0.05-40 mu g mL(-1) had a good linear relationship and limit of detection was 0.021 mu g mL(-1). Precisions expressed as relative standard deviations (RSD) in the inter-day and intra-day analysis were all lower than +/- 5%. The developed method was applied to the analysis of two commercial beverages samples, the recovery was 87.04-101.21% with the RSD of 1.8-4.6%. The proposed method is simple, sensitive, and environmentally friendly, and can be used for the determination of sunset yellow in beverages.