Rapid Determination of Vitamin B12 by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry in Multivitamin Tablets

In the current work, a rapid, simple, and sensitive inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method for determining vitamin B-12 in pharmaceutical preparations is proposed. The calibration graph plotted with five concentrations of vitamin B-12 was linear with a regression coefficient r(2) = 0.9994. The detection limit was 0.05 ng/mL for vitamin B-12. At a pump rate of 30 rpm, an analysis cycle of vitamin B-12, including sampling and washing, could be accomplished in 0.5 min with the relative standard deviations of 4.2%, 3.5%, and 2.6% for 0.25 ng/mL, 2.5 ng/mL, and 25 ng/mL, respectively. The method has been applied successfully in the determination of vitamin B-12 in multivitamin tablets.