[The determination of coumarin in foods by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)]

An HPLC procedure for determination of coumarin in foods has been developed. The samples were extracted with ether. The extract was evaporated at 40 degrees C under dry N2. The residue was diluted by adding 10.0 mL MeOH-H2O(9:1) and keep standing. A 10 microL clear liquid was analysed by HPLC on a Nova Pak C18 column (5 microns, 150 mm x 3.9 mm. i.d.) with MeOH/10 mmol/L-phosphate buffer of pH 5.4(45:55) as mobile phase (1.0 mL/min) and UV detection at 275 nm. The calibration curve was linear in the range from 2 to 10 mg/L and the detection limit was 0.015 mg/L. Recoveries of the method were from 97.6% to 100.8%. The CV (n = 6) was 1.3%. The method is simple, rapid and accurate.