에너지 음료는 카페인을 주성분으로 타우린, 비타민 같은 다른 energy-enhancing 성분을 함유하고 있다. 미국과 유럽에서는 글루쿠로노락톤이 에너지 음료에 첨가될수 있으나, 국내에서 의약품으로는 허가되어 있다. 따라서 식품 첨가물로는 그 사용이 금지 되어 있어, 지속적으로 수입 및 유통 음료에서 시험검사를 하여 규제하고 있다. 현재 분석법으로 사용하는 LC-PDA 법은 복잡한 유도체화 과 정을 거치고, 음료 중에 당류들이 위양성 결과를 나타내 기도 한다. 이런 기존 방법의 단점을 개선하기 위해 HILICESI- MS/MS (hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry) 를 이용한 분석법을 개발하고, 선택성, 직선성, 검출한계, 정량한계, 정밀도, 정확성, 재현성에 대하여 분석법 유효성 검증을 수행했고, AOAC, EURACHEM 가이드라인에 부합되는 결과를 얻었다.
A rapid, sensitive analytical method for glucuronolactone in beverages was developed and validated using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-ESI-MS/MS). To determine the optimum analytical conditions for glucuronolactone, three different kinds of HILIC columns and two mobile phases with different pH values were examined. An amide-bonded stationary phase with a pH 9 acetonitrile-rich mobile phase was the best condition in terms of column retention, ESI-MS/MS response area, and signal-to-noise ratio. After extraction, glucuronolactone was separated through the HILIC amide column and detected by negative ESI-MS/MS in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. Nine energy drinks sold in Korea were spiked with glucuronolactone at a concentration of 5 ng/mL; the Monster EnergyTM sample showed the smallest peak area and its signal-to-noise ratio was used for method validation. Good linearity was obtained in the concentration range from 20 to 1500 ng/mL with a correlation coefficient > 0.998. The developed method had a limit of detection (LOD) of 6 ng/mL and a limit of quantitation (LOQ) of 20 ng/mL. The recovery of this method at concentration of 20, 100, 500, and 1000 ng/mL was 96.3%-99.2% with relative standard deviations (RSD) of 1.6%- 14.0%. A reproducibility precision assessment at concentration of 100 and 500 ng/mL was carried out among three laboratories. The recovery of that evaluation was 95.1%-102.3% with RSD of 2.7%-7.0%. An analysis of variance indicated that there was no difference between the recovery results of the three laboratories at the 5% significance level. The validated method is applicable to inspecting beverages adulterated with glucuronolactone in Korea.