Abstract: A high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detector (HPLC-FLD) method for the determination of volatile phenols in Maotai-flavor liquors was established. This method was based on the fluorescent nature of volatile phenols and the separation of overlapped peaks with β-cyclodextrin as a resolving agent. The chromatographic separation was achieved on Synergi 4u Hydro- RP 80A column (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 4 μm) using acetic acid-β-cyclodextrin aqueous solution of (1:100, V/V) as mobile phase A and acetic acid-acetonitrile-β-cyclodextrin aqueous solution (1:40:60, V/V) by gradient elution. The excitation and emission wavelengths were set as 270 nm and 315 nm, respectively. Average recoveries of 10 volatile phenols in liquors were 83.8%–101.6% with RSDs ranging from 0.9% to 2.5%. The limits of detection of this method were 0.0025–0.0506 μg/mL. These results indicated that this method was accurate, sensitive and repeatable.

Key words: HPLC, volatile phenols, β-cyclodextrin, Maotai-flavor liquors