The simultaneous determination of Quinoline Yellow (E-104) and Sunset Yellow (E-110) in syrups and tablets by second derivative spectrophotometry

A very simple spectrophotometric method using measurements at zero-crossing wavelength is described for resolving binary mixtures of the food dyes, Sunset Yellow (E-110) and Quinoline Yellow (E-104). Calibration graphs are linear up to 15.0 mugml(-1) of Sunset Yellow (r = 0.9998), and Quinoline Yellow (r = 0.9999). The assay procedure for E-110 and E-104 in pharmaceutical products involves the extraction of the dyes with AcOH/NaOAc buffer solution (pH = 4.5), filtration, and measurement of the second derivative absorbance values at 410.0 nm for E-104 and 533.1 nm for E-110. This method was used for determining synthetic mixtures of these dyes in different ratios and it was successfully applied to two commercial products without a previous separation step.