Uematsu Yoko, Hirata Keiko, Suzuki Kumi, Iida Kenji, Kamata Kunihiro
Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health, 3-24-1, Hyakunin-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-0073, Japan.
Shokuhin Eiseigaku Zasshi. 2004 Jun;45(3):141-5. doi: 10.3358/shokueishi.45.141.
Spectrophotometrically determined substances in Yucca extract, listed as "Yucca foam extract" in the "List of Existing Food Additives in Japan", were investigated by GC/MS, TLC and GC. A TLC method using an anisaldehyde color developing reagent similar to that employed in spectrophotometry was established for selective detection of sapogenins in Yucca extract. Several steroidal sapogenins were found by GC/MS in the fractions corresponding to spots on the TLC plate, and these were assumed to have contributed to the color development in spectrophotometry. Sarsasapogenin and smilagenin were the dominant sapogenins. An on-column injection GC method to determine these sapogenins in Yucca extract was also developed. The sum of these two sapogenins in Yucca extract was 0.9%. The total amount of sapogenin estimated by GC was approximately 2%, which was similar to that measured by spectrophotometry.
