Determination of flavour components in natural vanilla extracts and synthetic flavourings by mixed micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography

The development of a mixed micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MECC) method for the qualitative and quantitative determination of key components, including vanillin, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, vanillic acid and 3-methoxybenzaldehyde, that contribute to vanilla flavour was investigated. The micellar phase consisted of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and sodium cholate (SC). The percent relative standard deviation (R.S.D.%) for migration time was <1 over six runs. The R.S.D.% for peak areas ranged between 0.85-1.96% over six runs. Peak efficiencies were excellent with theoretical plate numbers typically in the range of 130,000-200,000 per column (52 cm effective length). The limits of detection (LOD) were between 5-10 mug/ml. The quantitative data was verified by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC). The mixed MECC method was successfully applied to a number of natural vanilla extracts, nature identical extracts and synthetic flavourings. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.