A Rapid Method for Determination of Ethanol in Alcoholic Beverages Using Capillary Gas Chromatography
MEI-LING WANG1, YOUK-MENG CHOONG2*, NAN-WEI SU3 AND MIN-HSIUNG LEE3
1. Department of Food Health, Chia-Nan University of Pharmacy and Science. 60, Al-jen Road. Sect. 1, Pau-an, Jen-teh Hsiang, Tainan Hsien 717, Taiwan, R.O.C.
2. Department of Food Science and Technology, Tajen Institute of Technology, 20, Wei-shinn Rd., Yan-puu hsiang, Pintung Hsien 907, Taiwan, R.O.C.
3. Department of Agricultural Chemistry, National Taiwan University, 1,sec. 4, Roosevelt Road., Taipei 106, Taiwan, R.O.C .
(Received: May 16, 2002; Accepted: September 30, 2002)
ABSTRACT
In this study, a simple and rapid method was developed for the determination of BHT (2,6-di-t-butyl-p-hydroxytoluene) and BHA (t-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole) in chewing gum using solvent extraction combined with gas chromatography. The results showed that among seven types of extraction solvent, diethyl ether was the best, as chewing gum dissolved and dispersed in diethyl ether, gave the highest yield of BHT and BHA from chewing gum. Recovery studies were performed on chewing gum, spiked with both BHT and BHA at 100~200mg/g each. The recoveries of both BHT and BHA were 99~101% (CV: 1.5~3.2%) and 94~99% (CV: 7.1~8.6), respectively. The coefficients of variation were less than 8.6%. Fifteen chewing gum samples were analyzed by the current method. Both the BHT and BHA contents were found to be 0~296 mg/g and 0~133 mg/g, respectively. After chewing for 15 min, 70% of the total soluble compounds and 50% of BHT and BHA were released from chewing gum.
Key words: chewing gum, artificial antioxidants, solvent extraction, quantitation, gas chromatography.