Determination of betaine, choline and trimethylamine in feed additive by ion-exchange liquid chromatography/non-suppressed conductivity detection

An ion chromatography method with non-suppressed conductivity detection was developed for the simultaneous determination of betaine, choline and trimethylamine in feed additive. The analytes and the common inorganic cations were well separated by means of cation-exchange chromatography using a 4.5 mmol/L methanesulfonic acid solution containing 10% (v/v) acetonitrile as eluent and an IonPac SCS1 column (250 mm × 4 mm i.d.) as the separation column. The effects of the different chromatographic parameters on the separation were also investigated. Detection limits of betaine, choline and trimethylamine were 0.076, 0.044 and 0.041 mg/L. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of the retention time and peak area were less than 0.30% and 0.88%, respectively. The recoveries were between 93.2% and 112.6%. The method is suitable for use as a routine method in production quality control of feed additive.