High Performance Liquid Chromatographic Methods for Analysis of Taurine in Energy Drinks after Pre-column Derivatization

Published: 2018
Eurasian Journal of Analytical Chemistry, 13 (5)
ISBN/ISSN: 1306-3057

Abstract

Simple and efficient high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with photodiode array (PDA) and fluorescence (FLD) detection methods have been validated for determination of taurine in energy drinks. These methods are based on pre-column derivatization of taurine with 4-chloro-7-nitrobenzo-2-oxa-1,3- diazole (NBD-Cl) at alkaline medium to form colored fluorescent product. In the both validated HPLC methods, the derivatization product is separated on Intersil ODS-3 analytical column with acetonitrile and 0.1% trichloroacetic acid (30:70, v:v) as mobile phase. The eluted derivative is detected at 472 nm for HPLC-PDA and 472 nm/530 nm (Ex/Em) for HPLC-FLD. The methods were validated in terms of linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), precision and accuracy (recovery). Good linearities were achieved for taurine (r²> 0.9998 and 0.9993) in the concentration range of 5-50 mg L^-1 and 5-50 µg L^-1 for HPLC-PDA and HPLC-FLD respectively. The LODs were 0.296 and 0.616 × 10-3 mg L^-1 for HPLC-PDA and HPLC-FLD respectively. The precision for peak area were 0.78 and 0.61% for HPLC-PDA and HPLC-FLD respectively. Recoveries of taurine ranging from 92-103.3%), (n = 3) were obtained. The validated method was successfully applied for the determination of taurine in some selected energy drinks available in local markets.