Use of High-Performance Liquid Chromatography in the Assay of Reductones of the Degradation Solution of L-Ascorbic acid

Abstract

Six kinds of reductone were fractionated by high-performance liquid ckromatography (HPLC) using a SAX-801 Yanaco column and eluting with 0.1M NaNO₃. Detection was accomplished by absorption at 260nm. By this method, 3-hydroxy-2-pyrone (HP) and 3, 4-dihydroxy-5-methyltetron (MDT) were separated from the solution of degradation products of L-ascorbic acid (ASA). The time required for HPLC analysis was approximately 30min, with detection limits of ca. 5.0×10^-4M for HP and 1.0×10^-4M for MDT.