Determination of Fluorescent Whitening Agents in Tipping Paper and Plug Wrapper with HPLC

The fluorescent whitening agents,ABP and VBL,in 64 samples of tipping paper and plug wrapper were determined with HPLC.The samples were irradiated by UV-lamp,and the samples which fluoresced were extracted with N,N-dimethylformamide.The resultant extract was passed through an Alltima C₁₈ column(150 mm×4.6 mm×5 μm) using methanol-aqueous solution (45:55,v/v) as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min,and detected at the wave length of 435 nm.The results showed that:1) the average recoveries of ABP and VBL were 101.0% to 102.1% and 102.0% to 104.2% with RSD of 0.66% to 2.48% and 0.89% to 1.84% at detection limits of 0.10 and 0.15 ng/mL,respectively;2) 60 samples did not fluoresce under UV-lamp;3) VBL was detected in the other 4 samples which fluoresced,while ABP was not;among the 4 samples,1 was tipping paper and 3 were plug wrapper.The method is suitable for the simultaneous determination of ABP and VBL in batches of plug wrapper and tipping paper samples.