Fast simultaneous determination of prominent polyphenols in vegetables and fruits by reversed phase liquid chromatography using a fused-core column

• Published in: Food chemistry Vol. 169; pp. 169 - 179
• Main Authors: Martí, Raúl, Valcárcel, Mercedes, Herrero-Martínez, José Manuel, Cebolla-Cornejo, Jaime, Roselló, Salvador
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 15.02.2015
• Subjects: Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - methods; Chromatography, Reverse-Phase - methods; Flavonoids - analysis; Food; Fruit - chemistry; Functional quality; HPLC-DAD; Limit of Detection; Phenols - analysis; Polyphenols - analysis; Response surface methodology; Ultrasound-assisted extraction; Vegetables - chemistry; Response surface methodology; HPLC-DAD; Functional quality; Ultrasound-assisted extraction; Food
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.07.151

•A RP-HPLC UV method targeted to high throughput analysis of polyphenols was developed.•It enables joint analysis of 17 flavonoids and phenolic acids in less than 20min.•Extraction procedure was optimised using RSM and weighted desirability functions.•Its versatility enables application to different fruit and vegetable matrices. A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method with photodiode array detection has been developed enabling the joint determination of 17 prominent flavonoids and phenolic acids in vegetables and fruits. A multi-segmented gradient program using a fused-core column for the separation of several phenolic classes (phenolic acids and flavonoids) has been optimised. The influence of extraction conditions (sample freeze-drying, ultrasound extraction, solvent composition and extraction time) has been also optimised using response surface methodology with tomato samples as a model. Complete recoveries (76–108%) were obtained for the phenolic compounds present in tomato. The developed method provided satisfactory repeatability in terms of peak area (RSD<2.9%) and retention time (RSD<0.2%) both for standards and real samples. Detection limits ranged between 3 and 44μgkg−1 for the detected polyphenols. This method is recommended for routine analysis of large number of samples typical of production quality systems or plant breeding programs.