Characterization and determination of piperine and piperine isomers in eggs.

A new analytical method for the determination of piperine and its isomers in egg yolk and albumen is described here. All four isomers were separated by HPLC and detected using UV, DAD and electrochemical detection. The absolute detection limit (UV detection, S/ N=3) of a standard solution of piperine was 370 pg piperine. The correlation coefficients for the linear calibration graphs (concentration range: c=100 ng-10 micro g piperine isomer/mL) are generally better than 0.996. The piperine isomers were characterized and identified by spectroscopy (MS, (1)H-NMR, FT-IR). The method was successfully applied to the determination of piperine deposits in eggs (egg yolk and albumen) after feeding hens with piperine-spiked feed. The detection limit for piperine (24.8(+/-0.2) ng/g egg yolk and 37.9(+/-4.9) ng/g albumen) and the recoveries (70.3(+/-7.7)% (egg yolk) and 75.7(+/-1.9)% (albumen)) of piperine were determined.