Development and Experimental Application of an HPLC Procedure for the Determination of Capsaicin and Dihydrocapsaicin in Serum Samples from Human Subjects

• Published in: Indian journal of clinical biochemistry Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 329 - 335
• Main Authors: Hartley, Thomas, Stevens, Brian, Ahuja, Kiran D. K., Ball, Madeleine J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: India Springer India 01.10.2013; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Acetonitrile; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Capsaicin; Chemistry/Food Science; High performance liquid chromatography; Life Sciences; Microbiology; Original; Original Article; Pathology; Serum levels; Post oral dose; Capsaicin; Dihydrocapsaicin; HPLC
• ISSN: 0970-1915; 0974-0422
• DOI: 10.1007/s12291-013-0297-0

Total capsaicins are extracted from 2 mL aliquots of serum or plasma using methyl-isobutyl ketone, evaporation of the extract to dryness and reconstitution with 200 μL of acetonitrile. The HPLC mobile phase is 40:60 water:acetonitrile. The absorbance of the eluent is monitored at 205 nm. Standardisation uses a known mixture of pure capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin. Accuracies are 98.9 and 100.6 % for capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin respectively. Inter batch reproducibility for both is 15 %. The limits of detection are 2.6 and 3.8 ng/mL for capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin respectively. Analyses of sera obtained previously from human subjects who had eaten chilli containing meals showed that in those that absorbed capsaicins ( N  = 30) then the median, mean and SD of their serum capsaicin were: 13.4, 18.9 and 16.3 ng/mL. The corresponding data for those sera ( N  = 13) that had measurable levels of dihydrocapsaicin were: 6.9, 7.5 and 3.6 ng/mL. This procedure is suitable for use in prospective studies of the metabolism of orally ingested chilli.