Determination of sucrose polyesters by high performance gel permeation chromatography

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.