A Fast and Efficient Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction of Tocopherols in Cow Milk Followed by HPLC Determination

Molecules. 2021 Jul 30;26(15):4645. doi: 10.3390/molecules26154645.

Abstract

A fast HPLC method with fluorescence detector (FD) was developed for the determination of three tocopherols (TOCs) in milk samples from Modicana cattle breed. The ultrasound-assisted procedure was optimized for the extraction of TOCs prior to HPLC/FD analysis, reducing sample preparation time and allowing a fast quantification of α-tocopherol, δ-tocopherol and γ tocopherol. The optimized ultrasonic extraction combines an efficient and simple saponification at room temperature and a rapid HPLC quantification of TOCs in milk. The precision of the full analytical procedure was satisfactory and the recoveries at three spiked levels were between 95.3% and 87.8%. The linear correlations were evaluated (R2 > 0.99) and the relative standard deviation (RSD) values for intra-day and inter-day tests at three spiked levels were below 1% for the retention time and below 5.20% for the area at low level spiking. The proposed procedure, reducing the experimental complexity, allowed accurate extraction and detection of three TOCs in milk samples from Modicana cattle breed.

Keywords: HPLC/FD analysis; food analysis; milk; tocopherol; vitamin E.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cattle
  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / standards*
  • Limit of Detection
  • Liquid-Liquid Extraction / methods*
  • Milk / chemistry*
  • Observer Variation
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Saponins / chemistry
  • Sonication
  • Time Factors
  • Tocopherols / isolation & purification*
  • alpha-Tocopherol / isolation & purification*
  • gamma-Tocopherol / isolation & purification*

Substances

  • Saponins
  • gamma-Tocopherol
  • alpha-Tocopherol
  • delta-tocopherol
  • Tocopherols