On the Slovenian market, there are many dietary supplements and one registered medicine containing an oxidized or reduced form of coenzyme Q10. Often, other active ingredients are included, among others vitamin E and E-acetate, ?-carotene and ascorbic acid. Demand for these products is rising, because coenzyme Q10 shows a number of positive effects. Therefore, it is very important that we have appropriate analytical methods for quality control of such products.
The purpose of this master’s thesis was to introduce new way of determining the total concentration of coenzyme Q10 by reduction with sodium borohydride. We optimized key steps of reduction and important part was also choosing final solvent with the aim of short-term stabilization of the reduced form of coenzyme Q10. Developed procedure was then compared with the established procedure of reduction with ascorbic acid. We found that the reduction is comparable, with difference that the ascorbic acid method is long-lasting and it’s not suitable for the reduction of coenzyme Q10 in products. We also tested various solvents and antioxidants for stabilization of reduced form of coenzyme Q10 and found that the best solvent for the short-term stabilization (stabilization at least 2 days) is ascorbic acid in acetonitrile (molar ratio ascorbic acid against coenzyme Q10 is 1 to 5) after reduction with sodium borohydride.
Then we tested developed procedure of determination of total content of coenzyme Q10, based on reduction, on medicine with coenzyme Q10 – Fidi koencim 10. Therefore, we also verified and optimized pre-developed method for the extraction of coenzyme Q10 and other lipophilic vitamins from soft capsules. For evaluation of content we used method, based on high performance liquid chromatography coupled with UV detector, that we adapted for our purpose and evaluated it for both forms of coenzyme Q10 according to guidelines of validation of analytical methods. Additionally, in comparison, we included 2 more ways to determine total coenzyme Q10, namely conversion to oxidized form of coenzyme Q10 and determination of individual forms (oxidized and reduced) at the same time. We have found that all three methods are comparable and suitable for determining the total content of coenzyme Q10. Determined content of total coenzyme Q10 in tested product very well matched labeled value.
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