[Simultaneous determination of canthaxanthin and Sudan Red in salted duck egg yolk by reversed-phase high performance...

A reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic (RP-HPLC) method for the simultaneous determination of canthaxanthin, Sudan Red I , Sudan Red II , Sudan Red III and Sudan Red IV in salted duck egg yolk has been developed. These canthaxanthin and Sudan Red dyes were extracted with a mixture of acetonitrile, methanol, and chloroform (1 : 0.5 : 0.5, v/v). The extract was dried by a rotary evaporator. The residue was transferred to a graduated tube and diluted to 10 mL with acetonitrile. The canthaxanthin and Sudan Red dyes were separated on a XDB-C18 column (250 mm x 4.6 mm), with acetonitrile-water (95:5, v/v) as mobile phase. They were then detected at 478 nm - 520 nm - 471 nm at different retention times by UV/Vis spectrophotometer. The recoveries of sudan I , sudan II, sudan II, sudan IV, and canthaxanthin were 97.34%, 89.56%, 90.98%, 93.63% and 95.15% respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) were 4.7%, 4.3%, 5.1%, 4.9% and 3.1%, respectively. The method is simple, rapid and accurate.