Kinetics of pre-column derivatization with 9-xanthydrol for the determination of ethyl carbamate (EC) in
wine by a previous high performance liquid chromatographic method with fluorescence detection was
studied and further developed. The life-time of the derivatized product and its excitation/absorption
spectra were systematically investigated. Using low acidity (pH = 2.5 set by phosphate buffers) only 3%
of 9-xanthyl ethyl carbamate (XEC) decomposes in48 h, allowing a prolonged storage time of the derivatized EC conferring more accurate determination for large sample batches. Detection limit of this
method is 3lgL1, while its average recovery is 98.5 ± 4.9%. Calibration is linear up to 400 lgL1. The
EC content in 33 Hungarian wine samples ranges from 4.9 to 39.9lgL1
(average: 17.7lgL1, median:16.7lgL1), while only three of them was slightly over 30lgL
1EC, it being the maximum allowed concentration in countries already having legislation