Pantothenic acid quantification by a stable isotope dilution assay based on liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A stable isotope dilution assay for the quantification of free and total pantothenic acid has been developed by using [¹³C₃, ¹⁵N]-pantothenic acid as the internal standard. The three-dimensional specificity of liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry enabled unequivocal determination of the vitamin. Due to the very simple extraction and clean-up procedure, free pantothenic acid could be analysed within 2 h, which is much faster than by microbiological or gas chromatographic assays. For quantification of total pantothenic acid, the vitamin was liberated from its conjugates by an overnight incubation with pigeon liver pantetheinase and alkaline phosphatase. In analyses of corn flour, the intra-assay coefficient of variation was 8.5% (n = 5) and 15.3% (n = 4) for free and total pantothenic acid, respectively. When pantothenic acid was added to corn starch at a level of 6 mg kg^-1, a recovery of 97.5% was found. Application of the stable isotope dilution assay to whole egg powder, hazel nuts and corn revealed similar data compared to those listed in nutrition data bases, whereas the content in mushrooms and porcine liver determined by the newly developed assay appeared to be lower and that of cocoa higher than reported in the literature.