Journal of Chromatography A, 1192 (2008) 187190

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Journal of Chromatography A
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chroma

Short communication

Determination of organic acids in the presence of inorganic anions by ion

chromatography with suppressed conductivity detection
Xiumei Geng, Sufang Zhang, Qian Wang, Zongbao (Kent) Zhao
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 4 October 2007
Received in revised form 24 March 2008
Accepted 27 March 2008
Available online 30 March 2008
Keywords:
Ion chromatography
Conductivity detection
Organic acids
Culture media
Peptone
Yeast extract

a b s t r a c t
Simultaneous separation of 19 organic acids and 10 inorganic anions has been demonstrated using ion
chromatography with a high capacity anion exchange column and the suppressed conductivity detector
under an auto-suppression external sulfuric acid mode. Quantitative merits of this method were examined
for analysis of nine organic acids of potential signicance in cell culture broth. External calibration curves
for these analytes were linear with correlation coefcients exceeding 0.999, and the relative standard
derivations of observed analyte concentrations were less than 3.0% in both inter- and intra-day evaluations
of aqueous standards. Developed methodology was subsequently applied to obtain organic acid proles of
LuriaBertani liquid media, yeast extract, peptone, and the culture broth of a mutant Escherichia coli strain.
Analytes recoveries observed for triplicate analysis of LB media spiked at two concentration levels ranged
from 88% to 105% with less than 7% RSD. These data demonstrate quantitative accuracy for LB media and
suggest that the report method may also be applicable to complex samples such as fermentation mixture
and lignocellulose hydrolysate.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Fermentation and cell culture media are routinely prepared by
mixing carbon sources such as glucose, and other complex materials including yeast extract and peptone. These materials are used to
supply nutrients for cell growth. However, detailed compositional
data at the molecular level are largely unknown. Very recently,
cellular metabolism and ux analysis have been studied extensively [13], for which a quantitative analysis of the compositional
constituents presented in the media is essential. Therefore, it is
important to detect individual organic acid, so that the metabolic
networks can be precisely elucidated. Similarly, studies examining organic acid production via fermentation processes also require
proling of organic acids in the culture in order to rationally design
the acid-producing microorganism, as well as the bioprocess [4].
A number of methods for organic acid analysis are available.
Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
incorporated with an ultraviolet (UV) detector [5,6], a refractive
index (RI) detector [7], or photo-diode array detection [8] has been
generally employed. In a representative report, 32 species, including aliphatic acids, aromatic acids, and phenolic compounds were
identied from a biomass pretreatment hydrolysate sample [6].
However, UV detection at approximately 210 nm for carboxylic

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 411 84379211; fax: +86 411 84379211.
E-mail address: zhaozb@dicp.ac.cn (Z. Zhao).
0021-9673/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2008.03.073

acids lacks selectivity and is sensitive to other interfering compounds, while the HPLC system is known to uctuate under a lower
UV wavelength close to 200 nm. Additionally, rapid quantication
of organic acids during microbial fermentation using ultraperformance liquid chromatographytandem mass spectrometry has
been reported with detection limits around 0.61.0 mg/l, although
the instrument system is quite expensive [9]. Ion chromatography (IC) with conductivity detection has also been introduced to
quantify organic acids in complex samples such as tobacco [10],
corn stover hydrolysate [11], mammalian cell culture [12], and byproducts of aluminium production [13]. However, direct analysis of
organic acids in the presence of common inorganic anions remains
an analytical challenge [9].
In the present study, we demonstrated an IC protocol for separation of 29 potential analytes including mono-, di-, and tri-carboxylic
acids and inorganic anions under a suppressed conductivity detection and an auto-suppression external sulfuric acid mode. We
successfully proled organic acids in biologically relevant samples
including LuriaBertani (LB) liquid media, yeast extract, peptone,
and the fermentation broth of a gene-knockout Escherichia coli
strain. When compared to other published methods [5,6,9,11], our
procedure offers an advantage in terms of resolution of target analytes in some cases, sensitivity in others, and in cost compared
to the UPLCMS/MS approach [9]. This procedure can be applied
to analysis other complex samples such as food products, beverages, biomass hydrolysates and fermentation broth, where strongly
hydrophilic compounds and anions are also present.

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X. Geng et al. / J. Chromatogr. A 1192 (2008) 187190

2. Experimental
2.1. Chemicals
Sodium formate (99%), isocitric acid lactone (97%) and malic acid
(99%) were purchased from J&K Chemical (Beijing, China). Sodium
acetate (98%), succinic acid (98%), fumaric acid (98%), 2-ketoglutaric
acid (98%), and pyruvic acid (98%) were purchased from ABCR
(Karlsruhe, Germany). Sodium lactate (99%) and citric acid (99.5%)
was obtained from Sigma (St Louis, MO, USA), sodium oxalate
(98%), sodium propionate (99%) and glutaric acid (99%) were from
Guangfu Fine Chemical Research Institute (Tianjin, China). Peptone (batch: 20050510) and yeast extract (batch: 20060526) were
products of Aoboxing Biotech. (Beijing, China). HPLC-grade solvents
were from Merck (Darmstadt, Germany). Ultrapure water used for
the mobile phase and the stock solutions of the analytes was generated by Milli-Q water purication system (Millipore, Bedford, MA,
USA).
2.2. Chromatography system
The IC system and components were from Dionex (Sunnyvale, CA, USA). The hardware consisted of an ICS-2500 IC system
equipped with a GP50 gradient pump, an ED50A conductivity detector, a guard column (IonPac AG11-HC, 50 mm 4 mm),
a high capacity anion exchange analytical column (IonPac
AS11-HC, 250 mm 4 mm), a 25 l sample loop and an anion selfregenerating suppressor (ASRS, 4 mm) which was operated in the
auto-suppression external sulfuric acid (5 mM) mode. Eluents were
degassed via sonication and protected with nitrogen, and were
further puried by an anion trap (ATC-3, 9 mm 24 mm) placed
between the pump and the injection valve. Data acquisition and
instrument control were performed using the Chromeleon software
installed on a personal computer.
2.3. Standard solution and sample preparation
The concentrations of the standard mixtures ranged from 1.0 to
30.0 mg/l in ultrapure water. The concentrations for peptone and
yeast extracts were 1.0 and 0.5 g/l, respectively, which were injected
to the IC system without further dilution. LB liquid medium was
prepared by dissolving 1.0 g peptone, 0.5 g yeast extract, and 1.0 g
glucose in 100 ml ultrapure H2 O, and was autoclaved at 121 C for
15 min. This media was diluted 100-fold before analysis.
Culture broth was obtained by growth of a mutant E. coli strain
in LB liquid medium at 37 C and 200 rpm for 24 h. One milliliter
of the culture broth was centrifuged at 13,000 g for 10 min, and
then diluted 50-fold before sampling.
2.4. Procedures
All experiments were performed at a ow rate of 1.0 ml/min and
with a 30 C oven temperature. The samples were injected through
a 0.22 m lter before entering the IC system. Data collection was
carried out in triplicate. Ultrapure water was injected before the
unknown samples.
2.5. Quantication
The concentration of each component was obtained by direct
interpolation of the peak area from the corresponding regression
equation. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantitation
(LOQ) were calculated experimentally as a signal-to-noise ratio of
3 and 10, respectively.
Recovery was obtained by means of the standard addition procedure. Two sets of recovery experiments, each with three replicates,

were conducted. In the rst set, LB media was supplemented with

lactate (2.0 mg/l), acetate (0.73 mg/l), propionate (0.08 mg/l), formate (0.34 mg/l), pyruvate (0.10 mg/l), succinate (0.05 mg/l), malate
(0.02 mg/l), oxalate (0.13 mg/l), and citrate (0.40 mg/l). In the second set of experiments the concentration for each compound was
reduced to 50% of that of the rst set. The experimental recovery of
each compound was calculated by dividing the determined amount
by the supplemented amount and multiplying by 100%.
3. Results and discussion
Yeast extract is the total water-soluble portion of autolyzed Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells that were grown in a carbohydrate-rich
plant medium. Yeast extract is considered one of the most complete and versatile fermentation nutrients, and is used extensively
in non-animal formulations for bacterial, fungal, mammalian and
insect cell culture. Peptone is the peptic digests of animal tissue prepared under carefully dened digestion parameters, and is widely
used in culture medium for a variety of applications including
production of substances from the culture of bacteria, fungi and
mammalian cells. Yeast extract and peptone are assumed to contain
various organic acids, amino acids, vitamins, and inorganic salts;
however, no detailed compositional data are dened. It is important to note that separation of inorganic anions from organic acids
is critical for analysis of these samples, as they are inevitably mixed
with salts in order to promote cell growth or to establish a proper
osmotic pressure.
In the present study, we established an IC method utilizing a
degassed mobile phase including solvent B (100 mM NaOH), solvent
C (methanol), and solvent D (1 mM NaOH). The gradient conditions
are tabulated in Table 1. Using this gradient procedure, a typical
chromatogram for separation of 29 analytes was recorded (Fig. 1).
These carboxylic acids and inorganic anions including F , Cl , Br ,
I , SCN , NO2 , NO3 , SO4 2 , S2 O3 2 , and PO4 3 were well separated, as the resolutions for all analytes were higher than 1.5.
Many experiments targeting optimal separation for all
compounds were performed. Cis-aconitate routinely gave two
well-separated peaks, at 59.07 min (peak 27) and 61.55 min (peak
28), respectively (Fig. 1), likely resulting from rapid isomerisation
between cis-aconitate and trans-aconitate in the presence of
NaOH [14]. Similarly, itaconate and citraconate were also found
interconverted under a higher concentration of NaOH (25 mM);
however, they could be separated at a low concentration of NaOH
in the absence of methanol. The quantication of pyruvate in the
presence of oxalacetate with NaOH as a mobile phase is also important [15], as decarboxylation of oxalacetate could occur in strong
basic conditions, leading to an -hydroxyacrylate intermediate
that ketonizes to pyruvate [16]. Methanol as a co-solvent played
an important role in the baseline separation of the 29 analytes.
For instance, succinate and malate could not be well separated

Table 1
Gradient elution prole
Time

Solvent B (100 mM
NaOH)

Solvent C
(MeOH)

Solvent D (1 mM
NaOH)

0
8
15
18
20
25
30
40
60
67

0
0
2
4
8
12
16
25
65
68

0
0
5
7
10
17
17
16
16
16

100
100
93
89
82
71
67
59
19
16

X. Geng et al. / J. Chromatogr. A 1192 (2008) 187190

189

Fig. 1. IC chromatogram of 29 species. (1) Fluoride, (2) lactate, (3) acetate, (4) propionate, (5) formate, (6) butyrate, (7) pyruvate, (8) chloride, (9) nitrite, (10) bromide,
(11) nitrate, (12) glutarate, (13) succinate, (14) malate, (15) tartrate, (16) citraconate,
(17) maleate, (18) 2-ketoglutarate, (19) fumarate, (20) sulfate, (21) oxalate, (22) phosphate, (23) iodide, (24) citrate, (25) thiosulfate, (26) isocitrate, (27) cis-aconitate, (28)
trans-aconitate, and (29) thiocyanate.

without methanol. However, methanol exhibited detrimental

effects on the separation of acetate and lactate. Interestingly, the
elution order for fumarate, sulfate, and oxalate was dependant
on the methanol concentration; when the eluent contained 8%
methanol, the analytes came off in the order of sulfate, fumarate,
and oxalate, while the order changed to fumarate, sulfate, and
oxalate if 20% methanol was used, and if there was no methanol,
the elution order was sulfate, oxalate, and fumarate.
To validate the developed method, we further analyzed nine
carboxylic acids that were likely present in the supernatant of the
cell culture. The linear regression equations, correlation coefcient
(r2 ), and the relative standard deviation for inter-day (RSDinter-day ),
RSDintra-day , LOD, and LOQ are shown in Table 2. These compounds
had an excellent resolution as revealed by their corresponding
retention time data. Linear correlation coefcients were all higher
than 0.999. Remarkable, the RSDinter-day and RSDintra-day were less
than 3.0 for all analytes, suggesting that the protocol and the system were quite steady. However, the RSDinter-day was not always
worse than the RSDintra-day , likely due to different response to the
system uctuation during the all-day operation. Similar phenomena have also been previously described [5]. In the present study,
LOD and LOQ were in the range of 0.659.20 g/l, which were more
sensitive than those previously reported methods [5,6,9]. For example, LODs reported Dalluge and co-workers [9] were in the ranges
of 601000 g/l. However, results described in Zhangs work [12]
were close to those of the present study.

Fig. 2. Chromatogram of LB liquid media (A) and gene-knockout E. coli strain culture
broth (B). Peak labels are as noted in Fig. 1.

The recoveries of analytes were determined by the standard

addition procedure with two concentrations using LB media as
the testing sample. The recoveries for lactate, acetate, propionate,
formate, pyruvate, succinate, malate, oxalate and citrate were
97.8100.5%, 94.1101.2%, 95.699.7%, 90.1104.8%, 93.197.0%,
95.6101.3%, 88.2102.5%, 95.2100.4% and 90.799.5%, respectively. Therefore, the RSD values were in the range of 1.347.36,
which were higher than those of RSDinter-day and RSDintra-day
obtained with clean samples.
Next, using this method we analyzed LB liquid media. As shown
in Fig. 2A, the 100-fold diluted LB media contained a considerable amount of organic acids. Among the nine organic acids lactate

Table 2
Regression equation, retention time, r2 , RSDinter-day , RSDintra-day , LOD, and LOQ for nine organic acidsa
Analytes

Regression equation

Retention time (min)

r2

RSDinter-day n = 6

RSDintra-day n = 5

LOD (g/l)

LOQ (g/l)

Lactate
Acetate
Propionate
Formate
Pyruvate
Succiniate
Malate
Oxalate
Citrate

Y = 0.096X 0.015
Y = 0.097X + 0.040
Y = 0.067X + 0.031
Y = 0.187X 0.040
Y = 0.076X + 0.005
Y = 0.047X + 0.013
Y = 0.060X + 0.018
Y = 0.132X + 0.022
Y = 0.044X 0.001

14.49
15.46
17.45
18.68
20.76
37.25
37.99
44.81
55.87

0.9997
0.9992
0.9996
0.9994
1.0000
0.9994
0.9995
0.9995
0.9998

0.66
1.24
1.17
2.90
1.82
1.06
1.00
0.72
2.04

1.09
1.78
1.37
1.53
0.45
0.26
0.19
1.05
1.23

1.26
1.07
1.74
0.65
1.57
2.51
1.89
0.88
2.76

4.21
3.55
5.81
2.17
5.24
8.36
6.31
2.93
9.20

All the relative standard derivation data were those corresponding to analyte concentrations.

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X. Geng et al. / J. Chromatogr. A 1192 (2008) 187190

Table 3
Organic acid proles of the complex samples
Analytes

B medium
(mg/l)

Yeast extract
(mg/l)

Peptone
(mg/l)

E. coli culture
(mg/l)

Lactate
Acetate
Propionate
Formate
Pyruvate
Succinate
Malate
Oxalate
Citrate

1.78
0.44
0.06
0.02
0.09
0.36
0.02
0.08
0.20

13.67
2.39
0.25
0.76
0.03
2.66
0.08
0.57
0.09

3.37
2.10
0.33
0.98
0.09
0.49
0.09
0.23
0.12

0.03
12.48
0.06
0.01
0.01
2.00
0.11
0.10
0.26

concentration was much higher than the others. To determine the

origin of these acids, solutions of yeast extract and peptone were
made at 0.5 and 1.0 g/l, respectively, and were analyzed under identical conditions. It was found that lactate, acetate, and succinate
were among those with higher concentrations in yeast extract;
while lactate, acetate, and formate showed higher concentrations
in peptone (Table 3). Because yeast extract and peptone are major
nutrient materials widely used in molecular biology and biotechnology, these results suggested that greater attention should be
paid to the presence of organic acids in order to address cellular
biotransformation and to establish metabolic analyses. A representative chromatogram for the culture broth of a mutant E. coli
strain that was grown at 37 C for 24 h can be seen in Fig. 2B. This
sample contained signicantly more acetate and succinate when
compared to the original LB liquid media, in accordance with the
observation that E. coli accumulated acetic acid during fermentation [17]. The reason for succinate accumulation was likely due
to the genetic knockout of the sdhAB gene, which blocks transformation of succinate to fumarate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle. It
was also noticeable that lactate was drastically lower in the culture
broth, suggesting that E. coli cells had taken up this species from
the media during cell growth.
It should be noted that our method detected analytes based
on conductivity, which is a unique property of ionic substances.

Furthermore, inorganic anions and other dissociable organic compounds might complicate the interpretation of the data. Therefore,
the retention time should not be used solely as the criteria for analyte identication. In the present study, we have routinely checked
the samples by addition of the standards as well as by employing
samples with higher concentrations.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Hi-Tech R&D Program
of China (863 Program) (No. 2007AA05Z403) and CAS 100 Talents
program.
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