Recovery and Quantification of Folic Acid from Ethyl Cellulose

Glanbia Nutritionals processes certain vitamins, such as folic acid, with a coating of ethyl cellulose before being added to products such as protein bars and drinks. Previously conducted methods used to remove the excess ethyl cellulose and purify and quantify the folic acid have proven to be inefficient. This prompted the need to modify and improve upon the folic acid extraction process. Firstly, the pure folic acid standard and Glanbia sample had undergone sonication separately with ethyl acetate for forty minutes. In conducting liquid-liquid water extractions of both samples dissolved in ethyl acetate, folic acid could be recovered and quantified via HPLC at different concentrations (25 ppm, 50 ppm, 75 ppm, and 100 ppm). Each sample was confirmed to contain folic acid by comparing chromatographic data at 210 nm, 230 nm, and 280 nm, and folic acid recovery from the sample was analyzed. An average recovery of 139.42% was observed which means that every 1.00 grams of Glanbia samples delivers 0.717 grams of folic acid

Recovery and Quantification of Ascorbic Acid from Ethyl Cellulose

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is a water soluble vitamin that is essential for growth and development. Because it is heat, light, and moisture sensitive, ascorbic acid is coated in ethyl cellulose which slows the degradation of the bioactive ingredient in products. In order to accurately quantify the amount of ascorbic acid in a product, it must be extracted from the coating. A common method to extract the bioactive ingredient from its coating is boiling the sample for an hour which may cause degradation and loss of the bioactive ingredient. The liquid-liquid extraction method bypasses the damage done by the boiling method and yields a more efficient extraction. HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) was used to quantify the amount of ascorbic acid recovered using each method. The liquid-liquid method recovered 92% of vitamin C from the coating whereas the boiling method recovered 83% of vitamin C