A Rapid Method for Determination of Some Phenolic Acids in Brazilian Tropical Fruits of Mangaba (<i>Hancornia speciosa Gomes</i>) and Umbu (<i>Spondias tuberosa Arruda Camara</i>) by UPLC

Abstract

A rapid chromatographic method for the determination of six phenolic acids (chlorogenic, ferulic, gallic, p -coumaric, protocatechuic and vanillic acids) by ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC), was developed and applied for Brazili an tropical fruits mangaba ( Hancornia speciosa Gomes) and umbu ( Spondias tuberosa Arruda Camara). A multivariate statistical experimental design was employed to optimize analytical conditions (solvent A, solvent B concentrations and flow rates). Samples were cleaned-up by solid-phase extraction (SPE) with different solvents (methanol and acetone) employing SPE cartridges (amine and octadecyl-silane). The method using dihydrogen potassium phosphate 5 mmoL as solvent A and 8% acetonitrile as solvent B presented limits of detection varying from 14 to 94 ng.mL, limits of quantification from 39 to 277 ng.mL -1 with 2 μL of injection volume while total run time for all six compounds was only 9.6 minutes. Higher recovery was obtained by extraction with methanol-acetone of 69.51 % to 72.59% for protocatechuic acid and 69.58 % to 126.31% for the chlorogenic acid. The concentrations of chlorogenic , p -coumaric and ferulic acids in mangaba extracts were 113.4, 32.1 and 1.5 μg.g -1 , respectively while concentrations of chlorogenic , protocatechuic, gallic, vanillic, ferulic and p -coumaric acids present in umbu fruit were 118.9, 141.3, 3.5, 2.5, 2.2 and 1.8 μg.g -1 , respectively.