Quantification of Soybean Phospholipid Solubility using an Evaporative Light Scattering Mass Detector

Abstract

Numerous HPLC procedures for the separation of phospholipids have been described during the last 10 years (2). One of the major problems has been their detection, especially if quantitative results are needed. Recently, the evaporative light scattering mass detector has been introduced (5,7). It measures the intensity of the light scattered by the particle cloud formed by the solute upon evaporation of the nebulized mobile phase. Using this detector, a fast and reproducible High Pressure Liquid Chromatographic method has been elaborated in order to separate all major soybean phospholipids. Since the response of the mass detector is not linearly related to the sample load, calibration curves were elaborated to enable quantification. Finally, the proposed method was used to investigate the solubility of phospholipids in organic solvents. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the possibility to fractionate phospholipids based upon their selective solubility. Moreover, it could be deduced which solvents were suitable to dissolve mixed phospholipid samples.