Quantitative Determination of Vanillin and Ethyl Vanillin in Flavors by Paper Chromatography

Abstract

Abstract Previous methods for estimating vanillin and ethyl vanillin in mixtures were long and complicated. However, this paper presents a simple chromatographic separation and quantitative determination of these aromatics, using Mitchell equipment for paper chromatography and 8 × 8” papers. Development for 2 hours separates the compounds adequately; they are then extracted and measured by absorbances at 348 mμ in alkaline solution. Recoveries of added vanillin and ethyl vanillin to vanilla extract are excellent. Aside from normal manipulative errors, the only significant inaccuracy is caused by the small amount of natural p-hy-droxybenzaldehyde in vanilla (usually equivalent to about 5% of the vanillin content). The method does not separate p-hydroxybenzaldehyde and vanillin. Total errors in the method do not exceed 0.01%. Comparison of the method with the two AOAC methods for vanillin shows that the paper chromatographic method gives results close to those by the ultraviolet absorption method, in most cases, and significantly lower results than the photometric method, which is known to give erroneously high results.