Determination of pyrroloquinoline quinone by capillary zone electrophoresis

A new method for the determination of pyrroloquinoline quinone by capillary zone electrophoresis has been developed. Separation conditions have been optimised with the respect to different parameters including pH and ionic strength of the background electrolyte, separation voltage and temperature of the capillary. A buffer consisting of 50 mM β-alanine–HCl pH 3.0 was found to be the most suitable electrolyte for this separation. An applied voltage of 25 kV (negative polarity) and a temperature of 25°C gave the best analysis of pyrroloquinoline quinone. The linear detection range for concentration versus peak area for the assay is from 5 to 500 μM (correlation coefficient 0.9998) with a detection limit of 0.1–0.2 μM. The inter-day reproducibility of the peak area was 2.5% and the inter-day reproducibility of the migration time was below 0.18%.