Determination of water-soluble vitamins by liquid chromatography with a parallel dual-electrode electrochemical detector

A method for the determination of water-soluble vitamins (ascorbic acid, pyridoxine hydrochloride, pyridoxal hydrochloride, pyridoxamine dihydrochloride, p-aminobenzoic acid, folic acid) by liquid chromatography, with a parallel dual-electrode electrochemical detector, is described. One electrode was controlled at +0.80 V (vs. SCE), the other at +1.20 V (vs. SCE). The possibility of interference by eight other water-soluble vitamins (riboflavin, nicotinamide, cyanocobalamin, menadione, dextro calcium pantothenate, thiamine, nicotinic acid, dextro biotin) was studied. These vitamins did not interfere when a parallel dual-electrode detector system was used. The estimation of five of the vitamins was studied in detail. The linear ranges found were 10 ng-1.2 mug for pyridoxine hydrochloride, 2 ng-2mug for pyridoxal hydrochloride, 10 ng-3 mug for pyridoxamine dihydrochloride, 5-200 ng for folic acid and 0.6-200 ng for p-aminobenzoic acid, the limits of detection being 3, 0.6, 1, 2 and 0.06 ng respectively. Application of the technique to the estimation of vitamin B(6) in tablets is illustrated. The results indicate that the vitamin B(6) in these tablets existed in the pyridoxine hydrochloride form and the B(6) content agreed well with liquid chromatograph by spectrophotometric analysis.