Determination of sugars in royal jelly by HPLC

A HPLC method with refractive index detection ( RID) was developed for sugar determination in royal jelly (RJ). The method enables the determination of the three main sugars of royal jelly ( fructose, glucose and sucrose), and maltose, which is sometimes present in RJ. The method ensures adequate sensitivity, quantitative recoveries, does not suffer from matrix interferences and shows good repeatability. It was used for the analysis of 97 RJ samples of different origin and the results were found to be in agreement with those reported in literature. The method is simple and suitable for a routine quality control of RJ sugar composition and represents an alternative to gas chromatographic methods, which require more complex purification and derivatisation steps.