Rapid method for the determination of vitamins A and E in foods using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography

A rapid and novel ultra-HPLC (u-HPLC) method for the determination of vitamins A (retinol) and E (alpha-, gamma-, and delta-tocopherol) in foods was validated in terms of its precision, accuracy, and linearity. The u-HPLC separation was performed on an RP C18 column (particle size 2 microm, id 2 mm, and length 75 mm), followed by fluorescence detection. The recovery of retinol was more than 84.58%; the LOD and LOQ of the u-HPLC analysis were 0.015 and 0.045 mg/kg, respectively. The intraday and interday precision was less than 9.12%. The recoveries of alpha-, gamma-, and delta-tocopherol were more than 81.37%; the LOD and the LOQ were 0.014, 0.002, and 0.001 mg/kg and 0.042, 0.005, and 0.004 mg/kg, respectively. All calibration curves had good linearity (r2 = 0.99) within the test ranges. The novel, rapid method coupled to u-HPLC can provide significant improvements in the speed, sensitivity, and resolution compared with a conventional HPLC method.