Pantothenic acid quantification: method comparison of a stable isotope dilution assay and a microbiological assay

Different foods and feedstuffs were analyzed for pantothenic acid (PA) by the recently developed stable isotope dilution assay (SIDA) and by the standard method, a microbiological assay (MA). The SIDA involved the use of [13C3, 15N]-pantothenic acid as the internal standard and detection by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The analysis of identical extracts minimized systematic bias due to equal extraction yields and enabled an ideal comparison between both methods. For the samples derived from plants a good accordance between the MA and the SIDA of total PA was found, whereas for the products of animal origin, higher contents were measured by MA than by SIDA. From the results of treatments by pantetheinase and phosphatase on the one hand and papain and diastase on the other, it was concluded that MA is able to measure a significant amount of bound PA. Furthermore, the data imply that microbial enzymes were able to cleave PA conjugates more effectively than pantetheinase and phosphatase treatment.