[Rapid analysis of L-carnitine in health food by high performance anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detector].

OBJECTIVE:A pulsed amperometric detector-high performance anion chromatography method for the determination of L-carnitine in health food was established. METHODS:After samples were dissolved and dispersed with ether, L-carnitine in samples was extracted with 0. 1 mmol/L HC1. Using 200 mmol/L NaOH as the mobile phase, amino PAC PA10 Amino acid-separation column as separation column and pulse ampere detector with An as working electrode throughout the experiment. RESULTS:The linear was good in the range of 0.08 - 1.00 mg/ml. The intra-day RSDs of peak area and retention time for L-carnitine standard solution were 3.97% and 0.62% and the inter-day RSDs were 5.66% and 0.69%, respectively. The average recoveries were 95.6% - 113.5% and the RSD of sample analysis was 7.34%. The results of the proposed method for the analysis of L-carnitine in health foods were satisfactory. CONCLUSION:The proposed method is simple, accurate and reproducible. One analysis can be completed within 15 min. The method is adaptive for the analysis of L-carnitine in health food.