Abstract
A new methylation method for gas chromatographic determination of saccharin in foods was established. Saccharin was extracted from samples with ethyl acetate and converted to N-methylsaccharin by reaction with dimethyl sulfate in acetone at room temperature for 10 min. After decomposition of dimethyl sulfate with sodium hydroxide, N-methylsaccharin in the solution was determined by FID-gaschromatography using a column of SE-30 on Chromosorb W. Methyl palmitate was used as an internal standard. Rate of methylsaccharin formation from saccharin was 90.6-96.6%. This gas chromatographic method gave good results when applied to the determination of saccharin in several kinds of food and the recovery of saccharin added to food at the levels of 150 and 240 ppm was 77.3-94.3%.
