Qualitative and quantitative high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of aldehydes in Brazilian sugar cane spirits and other distilled alcoholic beverages.

A study is presented on the high-performance liquid chromatographic analysis of eighteen aldehydes in Brazilian sugar cane spirits and other international brandies. The aldehydes were separated by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography as 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazones (DNPHs). A very good chromatographic separation was achieved for eighteen different aldehyde-DNPHs. The proposed methodology is quite simple and not very time-consuming. Ten aldehydes were identified in 75 beverages and quantified using the external standard method with UV detection at 365 nm. A detailed knowledge of the aldehyde content should significantly contribute to improving the quality control of distilled spirits.