Chromatographic Determination of Denatonium Benzoate in Colognes
Abstract
Denatonium benzoate, commercially known as Bitrex, is an ionic compound containing a quaternary ammonium cation (denatonium) and negatively charged benzoate. It is commonly used as a bittering agent in various alcohol-based products to deter ingestion. The national regulations regarding the production and domestic-foreign trade of ethyl alcohol and methanol states that ethyl alcohols for domestic use should contain 0.8 g denatonium benzoate per 100 L of absolute alcohol. This leads to the necessity of quantitative analysis of denatonium benzoate in alcoholic products. Cologne samples of different brands were analyzed using reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) coupled with UV/vis detector. Isocratic elution was performed on an ODS column with a mobile phase containing 75% MeOH:25% H2O. Since the proposed method does not require any pre-treatment step, the procedure is simple and rapid. The limit of quantitation was found to be 0.17 mg/L. The linearity of the method was tested in the range 0.26 – 15.75 mg/L with a limit of detection of 0.050 mg/L (signal-to-noise ratio of 3).
Keywords
Denatonium benzoate, Bitrex, Denaturant, Alcohol-based hand sanitizers, Cologne, HPLC
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