Determination of (E)-10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid content in pure royal jelly: a comparison between a new CZE method and HPLC.

A new CZE method was developed and compared with HPLC for the determination of (E)-10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (10-HDA) in royal jelly (RJ) samples of different geographical origin. The results obtained with the CZE method were highly correlated with those of HPLC (p < 0.01). Under optimized conditions, CZE employed minimal amounts of 50 mM tetraborate buffer as BGE, without the addition of organic solvents, EOF or pH modifiers. The CZE method showed a wide linear response range (0.006-0.808 mg 10-HDA/mL), a good sensitivity (LOD and LOQ were 0.002 and 0.004 mg/mL, respectively) and a satisfactory instrumental repeatability with respect to migration time and peak area (RSD% less than 1.0 and 2.0% on migration time for intra- and interday assay, respectively and less than 2.0 and for 4.0% on peak area for intra- and interday assay, respectively). The 10-HDA content in RJ ranged from 0.8 to 3.2 g/100 g of RJ and a significant difference (p < 0.05) was found between the Italian and extra-European average values: 2.5 and 1.6 g/100 g of RJ, respectively, according to the CZE data. The possibility of application of CZE for routine analyses on RJ and RJ based products to verify their authenticity is highlighted here.