Abstract
•UPLC/MS equipped with electrospray ionization source was used for the analysis.•Simultaneous separation and determination of sugars was carried out.•Chromatographic separation of all saccharides was performed on a BEH amide column.•The detection was carried out using selected ion recording acquisition mode.•The method was applied for determination of sugars in Sefri, Mabroom, Ghassab dates.
Ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry was used for the simultaneous separation and determination of reducing monosaccharides (fructose and glucose), a non-reducing disaccharide (sucrose) and oligosaccharides (kestose and nystose) in HILIC mode. The chromatographic separation of all saccharides was performed on a BEH amide column using an acetonitrile–water gradient elution. The detection was carried out using selected ion recording (SIR) acquisition mode. The validation of the proposed method showed that the limit of detection and limit of quantification values for the five analyzed compounds were in the range of 0.25–0.69μg/mL and 0.82–3.58μg/mL, respectively; while the response was linear in the range of 1–50μg/mL. The developed method showed potential usefulness for a rapid and sensitive analysis of underivatized saccharides and was used for determination of sugars in three date samples (Sefri, Mabroom, Ghassab) which were soxhlet extracted by ethanol.