Comparison of Column Packings for Isocratic High-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Analysis of Carotenoids Using Non-Aqueous Reversed-Phase

Abstract Ten different columns are compared for the isocratic non-aqueous reversed-phase separation of carotenoids, using solvent mixtures of ethyl acetate-acetonitrile both with and without 0.1% n-decanol as modifier. Conditions were established for separation of a mixture of alfalfa carotenoids containing mainly neoxanthin, violaxanthin, lutein and β-carotene. The best material for use for rapid isocratic separation of all major components was a high carbon loading non-endcapped material with ODS functionality, although one endcapped C8 material gave similar results. The use of n-decanol as mobile phase modifier is imperative to rapidly condition new columns to give optimum peak shape and definition and system linearity.