[Determination of nicotinamide in formula milk powder using liquid chromatography-isotope dilution mass spectrometry]

It is important to determine trace compounds in complex matrices. Internal standards are often introduced to circumvent loss of analytes during the preparation to achieve accurate measurement. Isotope internal standards are better than other types of internal standards, due to its high similarity to analyte in chemical properties. By introducing isotope-labeled nicotinamide, as an internal standard, a method for determining nicotinamide in formula milk powder by liquid chromatography-isotope dilution mass spectrometry (LC-IDMS) was developed with a relative standard deviation of 0.94%. The results suggested that the developed LC-IDMS method has high accuracy, high specificity, high repeatability, and is suitable for the determination of vitamins in complex matrices. This method was used to perform international comparison for CCQM-P78, and the result was consistent with that of international laboratories.