A novel capillary electrophoretic method for determining aliphatic aldehydes in food samples using 2‐thiobarbituric acid derivatization

Abstract

A novel electrophoretic method for sensitive determination of nine aldehydes, including formaldehyde (C1), acetaldehyde (C2), propanal (C3), butanal (C4), pentanal (C5), hexanal (C6), glutaradehyde (Gla), 2,3‐butanedione (Bud) and methylgloxal (MGo) in food samples, has been developed based on CE with amperometric detection (CE‐AD). After being derivatized with an electroactive compound, 2‐thiobarbituric acid (TBA), these nine non‐electroactive aldehydes were converted to electroactive adducts, and therefore detectable by CE‐AD approach. Experimental conditions of derivatization and CE‐AD detection were optimized. The proposed method was validated according to International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) requirements, with recovery results ranging from 82.8 to 123.8%. Calibration plots of aliphatic aldehydes were linear (r²≥0.9901) in the concentration range from 0.083 to 15.0 mg/L. The LODs were between 0.008 and 0.074 mg/L. The proposed CE‐AD method provides a reliable and sensitive quantitative evaluation for non‐electroactive low‐molecular‐mass monoaldehydes and dialdehydes in real sample matrices by employing relatively simple and inexpensive instrument.