SIMULTANEOUS DETECTION OF ETHYL CARBAMATE AND UREA IN CHINESE YELLOW RICE WINE BY HPLC-FLD

Ethyl carbamate (EC) is a naturally occurring component in fermented products, especially in Chinese yellow rice wine. A rapid and simple HPLC method is proposed for the simultaneous analysis of EC and urea in Chinese yellow rice wine. EC and urea reacted with xanthydrol (9H-xanthen-9-ol) under hydrochloric acid solution to produce fluorescent substances that could be quantified using FLD (ex=234nm, em=600nm) after chromatographic separation from interferences. The determination results proved that such a method had good linear relationship (the correlation coefficient, R-2>0.999), good repeatability (RSD<3.4%), and good recovery (94.4%-101%). The limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantitation (LOQ) were 7.00 mu g/L and 20.7 mu g/L, respectively, for EC; whereas, 100 mu g/L and 300 mu g/L, respectively, for urea. The new HPLC-FLD procedure is suitable for the fast, reliable, convenient, and inexpensive determination of EC and urea in Chinese yellow rice wine.