Abstract: A reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic method was described for determination of HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural) in royal jelly. The sample was extracted with water and removed proteins using the zinc acetate and potassium ferrocyanide solutions. The sample extract was cleaned up by C18 SPE cartridge, while the HMF was eluted off via C18 SPE cartridge with methanol and evaporated to dryness on nitrogen dry evaporator, and residues were dissolved in mobile phase and passed through 0.45μm filters for determination by a liquid chromatography UV detection with the wavelength of 285 nm. The linear range of the method are 0.1～100 mg/L and the linear correlation coefficient is 0.9993. In the ranges of 0.2～10 mg/kg , the fortification recoveries are 87.2%～93.1%, the relative standard deviations are 0.9%～3.4%. The limit of detection for the method is 0.2 mg/kg.

Key words: HPLC, royal jelly, hydroxymethylfurfural