Simple and Sensitive Analysis of Vitamins in a Complex Nutritional Drink

Thermo Fisher has developed a two-dimensional high-performance liquid chromatography (2D-HPLC) method for determination of water-soluble vitamins in a complex multivitamin/mineral nutritional drink.

Application Note 1069: Two-Dimensional HPLC Determination of Water-Soluble Vitamins in a Nutritional Drink demonstrates that this method simplifies quantification of ascorbic acid and B group vitamins, including thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinamide, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, biotin, and cyanocobalamin in a complex nutritional drink. This analysis requires only off-line filtration with the remainder of the sample preparation automated by a dual analytical system and data management software.

Vitamins are essential for human health, but because many water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body, daily vitamin supplements are often needed. Quality control assays are performed to ensure that these supplements contain the labeled amounts of vitamins.

This sensitive new 2D-HPLC method easily quantifies vitamins in complex drink supplements containing additional compounds that can interfere with the separation of vitamins and make quantification difficult for other commonly used methods.