HPLC analysis of artificial preservatives, stimulants and sweeteners in carbonated beverages in Bangladesh

Abstract

Different (n=21) commercial carbonated beverages, available in Bangladesh, were analysed by HPLC coupled with a photodiode array detector (UV-PDA). The main objective of this study was to quantify the amount of different artificial sweeteners, stimulant and preservatives and to validate the two methods used in this purpose. The two methods are simultaneous determination of sodium benzoate, caffeine, and saccharin using the sodium acetate buffer with pH 3.0 at 254 nm and simultaneous determination of artificial sweeteners acesulfame-K and aspartame using the potassium phosphate monobasic buffer. Correlation coefficient (r²) obtained were 0.9977, 0.9976, 0.9975, 0.9993 and 0.9956 in the range of 1-100 µ/L, recoveries were 95.88-97.10, 96.53-97.20, 94.53-96.05, 91.15-93.31 and 92.88-94.13%, LODs were 30.06, 15.46, 31.61, 0.33 and 0.83 mg/L, and LOQs were 100.18, 51.54,105.37, 1.11 and 2.77 mg/L for saccharin, caffeine, sodium benzoate, acesulfame-K and aspartame, respectively. The present analysis shows that amount of saccharin, caffeine, sodium benzoate, acesulfame-K and aspartame in the range of ND-377.60, ND-462.36, ND-217.60, ND-48.09 and ND- 295.20 mg/L, respectively. The total carbohydrate found as 102.81-147.16 g/L using the UV-visible spectrophotometric method which implies that sample containing more amount of carbohydrate has less artificial sweeteners value.