Determination of cyclamate in low-calorie foods by high-performance liquid chromatography with indirect visible photometry

A rapid and simple method using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography combined with indirect visible photometry at 433 nm was developed to determine cyclamate in some food samples. Cyclamate was not detected in these chosen samples as its use is banned in Hong Kong. Cyclamate can easily be detected in spiked samples using a mobile phase consisting of 30 mu mol dm(-3) Methyl Red and 0.02 mol dm(-3) phosphate buffer (pH 7.0)-methanol in a volume ratio of 3:2. The column temperature was set at 23 degrees C. The detection limit was 0.14 mmol dm(-3) and the relative standard deviation of the peak area response was 0.58% for a solution containing 5.0 mmol dm(-3) of cyclamate (n = 8). This method was successfully applied to the analysis of eight spiked food samples and the cyclamate recoveries for these samples ranged from 93 to 99%.