High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Pyrroloquinoline Quinone as Acetone Adduct

Abstract

A high performance liquid chromatographic method for the determination of pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) is described. PQQ reacts readily with acetone in a weakly alkaline medium, giving a stable adduct, 5-acetonyl PQQ. The adduct was separated on a Develosil C₁₈-5 column using a mixture of methanol and 0.06M phosphoric acid, and was detected at 254nm. The response was linear over the range (1-20)×10^-6M of PQQ and the detection limit was 2pmol for a 20-μl injection volume.