Liquid chromatographic analysis of dehydroacetic acid and its application to wines

A simple liquid chromatographic procedure is described for determination of the preservative dehydroacetic acid (DHA) in wine. No cleanup procedure is necessary; the sample is injected onto an NH2 column without further pretreatment. The mobile phase is a 9 + 1 mixture of acetonitrile-sodium acetate buffer adjusted to pH 4 with acetic acid. Total run time is less than 10 min. Dehydroacetic acid is determined by using the absorbance at 307 nm; the detection limit is estimated to be 0.2 ppm. The method may also be suitable for detecting DHA in a variety of foodstuffs in low concentrations.