Steviol Quantification at the Picomole Level by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

A simple and highly sensitive reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic method (RP-HPLC) has been developed for the determination of steviol (SV) using dihydroisosteviol (DHISV) as an internal standard (IS). SV and DHISV were derivatized by reaction of the acids with 4-(bromomethyl)-7-methoxycoumarin in an aprotic solvent (DMF or acetone). The resulting ester derivatives were separated on an ODS column (250 × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm particle size) using fluorescence detection with excitation at 321 nm and emission at 391 nm. The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile/water (80:20 v/v) with a flow rate of 1 mL min-1. A linear relationship was observed for concentrations between 0.5 and 50 μg/mL of SV, and the detection limit was 100 pg. For application of this method to samples of beer fortified with stevioside, a simple procedure for extraction of the beer with diethyl ether and derivatization in DMF was applied. Whereas beer samples spiked with SV gave a linear response over the range 0.1−15 μg/mL beer, no SV could be detected in beer samples enriched in stevioside that had been stored for over 3 years. The application of the method to plant samples involved preparation of an acid fraction containing the SV analyte, derivatization, and sample cleanup using small silica columns and thin-layer chromatography. A sensitive determination of 594 ng of steviol present in 100 mg of dry plant material was performed with high precision and accuracy. Keywords: Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni) Bertoni; steviol; dihydroisosteviol; 4-(bromomethyl)-7-methoxycoumarin; fluorescence detection; biological fluids; plants