Analysis of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furoic acid (HMFA) the main metabolite of alimentary 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF) with HPLC and GC in urine

A liquid chromatographic method with UV detection was developed to analyse 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural and its main metabolite 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furoic acid in urine. For the analysis on a reversed phase column was used with 5% methanol in water and 5 mM tetramethylammoniumhydrogen sulphate as ion-pair reagent as eluent. The detection was done at the UV absorption maximum of HMFA at 255 nm. The limit of quantification for HMFA was 7 mg/L with a recovery of 89%. For sample preparation the urine was centrifuged and the supernatant diluted with water. Three hundred samples of human urine were analysed. The concentration of HMFA was in the range of 0–100 mg/L with most of the samples around 10 mg/L.