Determination of sucrose polyesters by high performance gel permeation chromatography

Abstract
Sucrose polyester (SPE) in feces and diets is determined by freeze‐drying the samples, extracting with ethyl ether, and subjecting the extracts to high performance gel permeation chromatography with tetrahydrofuran as solvent. SPE elutes as a single peak before other components of the extract, and is quantitated by a refractive index detector. The relative standard deviation for samples containing 11–60% SPE (dry weight basis) is 2%. The SPE is a mixture of sucrose hexa‐, hepta‐, and octa‐esters with C16 and C18 fatty acids.