Abstract: This study was undertaken in order to establish a rapid and sensitive method for detecting the content of phospholipids in the muscle of Ergthroculter ilishaeformis. Chloroform methanol was used to extract lipids, and the composition of phospholipids was detected by high performance liquid chromatography with evaporative light scattering detection (HPLC-ELSD). A Chromolith? Performance-Si type positive phase silica gel column (100 mm × 4.6 mm) was used as the separation column, and gradient elution was performed using a ternary mobile phase consisting of n-hexaneisopropanol- 13% acetic acid solution at a flow rate of 1.5 mL/min. The column temperature was set at 30 ℃, and sample volume at 20 μL. The ELSD drift tube temperature was 70 ℃, and atomization gas (nitrogen) pressure 320 kPa. All the phospholipid components were completely separated, and the peak area of each had a good linear relationship with its concentration in the tested ranges. The method had high precision with coefficient of variation (CV) less than 3%. The average recovery was 88.38%–107.41% with relative standard deviation (RSD) of 0.40%–4.95%. This method is simple, fast, sensitive, reproducible, accurate and reliable and can be suitable for the determination of phospholipid contents in freshwater fish such as E. ilishaeformis.

Key words: Ergthroculter ilishaeformis, phospholipid, high performance liquid chromatography, evaporative light scattering detection