Extraction and Purification of Short-chain Fatty Acids from Fermented Reconstituted Skim Milk Supplemented with Inulin

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) acetate, propionate, butyrate and lactate were determined in 12 % reconstituted skim milk (RSM) and RSM supplemented with inulin (RSMI). The fermentation was performed with Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis (BB 12) and Lactobacillus rhamnosus LGG ATCC 53013. Fermentation culture activities produced substantial amounts of SCFAs, which were detected and quantitated using a HPLC-UV technique. Using HPLC-UV, we were able to detect low concentrations of lactate and SCFAs from fermented samples; lactate, acetate, propionate and butyrate were detected at 10.10, 12.06, 14.80 and 18.06 mu g/mL, respectively. The retention time of all SCFAs and lactic acid were similar to the standard quality control (+/- 0.05), and average recovery ranged between 89.73 and 91.03 %. The experimental conditions and sample preparation were applied to preparative HPLC to isolate and purify SCFAs with concentration range between 0.09 and 2.86 mg/mL. The purity of extracted SCFAs was confirmed using atmospheric pressure chemical ionization/mass spectrometry by determining the molecular masses of target purified compounds. The scaled up validated analytical HPLC-UV method will further enhance and improve the use of this approach to produce purified large-scale SCFAs.