Vitamin C Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin C, including details on benefits, dosage, supplements, information.

Fast analysis of sugars, fruit acids, and vitamin C in sea buckthorn (Hippophaë rhamnoides L.) varieties.

Tiitinen KM, Yang B, Haraldsson GG, Jonsdottir S, Kallio HP

Department of Biochemistry and Food Chemistry and Functional Foods Forum, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland. katja.tiitinen@utu.fi

A fast, one-step gas chromatographic method was developed to analyze trimethylsilyl (TMS) derivatives of sugars, fruit acids, and ascorbic acid in sea buckthorn (Hippohaë rhamnoides L.) berries. The method was applied to berry press juice of sea buckthorn of different origins grown in Finland during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The method gave reliable results for D-fructose, D-glucose, ethyl-D-glucose, and malic, quinic, and ascorbic acids, which are the major sugars and acids in sea buckthorn juice. For the first time in sea buckthorn and evidently in any berry, the presence of ethyl beta-D-glucopyranoside is reported. The structure of ethyl glucose was verified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), MS, and NMR analyses of both the isolated and the synthesized compounds. In the GC method, vitamin C was analyzed as ascorbic acid only, and dehydroascorbic acid was thus not taken into account.

Published 29 March 2006 in J Agric Food Chem, 54(7): 2508-13.
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