High performance liquid chromatographic separation of sucrose fatty acid esters

Abstract The synthesis of sucrose fatty acid esters always results in complex mixtures. Two procedures for quantitative analysis of sucrose monoesters, respectively sucrose diesters, by means of high performance liquid chromatography on reversed‐phase columns, are described. A mixture of methanol and water (85:15, v/v) was used for the separation of the monoesters, while methanol, ethyl acetate and water (65:25:10, v/v/v) was used for the separation of diesters. These methods gave information about the amount of monoesters and diesters in the product; the ratio between sucrose monopalmitate and sucrose monostearate, and the number of the most important structure isomers. A complete separation of all the possible diester products seemed to be impossible, due to the presence of more complex structure isomers. The described procedures can give important support during preparative work on sucrose fatty acid esters and also in the evaluation of these products for application purposes.