Liquid Chromatography: Chapter 18. Analysis of Vitamins by Liquid Chromatography

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has become the technique of choice to perform an accurate determination of water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins and provitamin A carotenoids in foods, especially for routine work. An overview of main HPLC methods for the individual and simultaneous vitamin analysis in foods is here presented. All precautions indispensable for handling these analytes, easily susceptible to degradation, are described as well as problems connected with the sample preparation, chromatographic separation and detection. Difficulties related to the development of multivitamin methods are also assessed and the potentiality of the latest extraction and chromatographic detection techniques are highlighted.