Čes. slov. farm. 2013, 62(3):136-143

HPLC determination of saccharides after pre-column derivatization in honey samples

Katarína Hroboňová^1,*, Jozef Lehotay¹, Jozef Čižmárik², Pavol Májek¹, Martin Tuharský¹

¹ Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

² Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Comenius University, Odbojárov 10, 832 32 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

The work is focused on the quality evaluation of Slovak honey samples on the basis of minor saccharide contents. The samples included unifloral and multifloral types of honeys. The saccharide contents were determined by HPLC with fluorescence detection. Derivatization of sugars with dansylhydrazine was used to increase detection sensitivity. The C18 type stationary phase was used for the separation of analytes and the mixture of acetonitrile and acetic acid was used as the mobile phase. The determined carbohydrates were saccharose, maltose, turanose, and also the main sugars glucose and fructose. Limits of detection were in the range from 15 to 100 μg.ml^-1 and suggest that low quantities of all studied compounds can be detected. Differences in saccharide contents between Slovak samples and samples from different geographical regions (France, Croatia) for maltose, turanose and also for saccharose were obtained. Using multivariate statistical treatment, Slovak honeys can be distinguished from other tested honeys using the saccharide profiles.

Keywords: saccharides; honey; derivatization; HPLC

Grants and funding:

This study was supported by the research project of the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic and Slovak Academy of Sciences (VEGA grant no. 1/0164/11).

Received: March 14, 2013; Accepted: April 24, 2013; Published: March 1, 2013  Show citation