Quantitative Determination of Ascorbic Acid in Vegetables by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

A simple high-performance liquid chromatographic procedure was to determine levels of ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid in vegetables that composed of reduction of dehydroascorbic acid to ascorbic acid by DL-homocysteine and the use of tetra-n-butylammonium bromide as an ion-pairing regent in the mobile phase. This method was used to determine the ascorbic acid, dehydroascorbic acid and total ascorbic acid content in 15 fresh vegetables. Sweet peppers and broccoli contained more than 80mg/l00g of TAA, while Chinese chives, tomatoes, Japanese radishes and carrots contained less than 20mg/l00g of TAA of edible portion. Many vegetables contained an inside level from 33 to 58mg/l00g. There is a difference in the content ratio of AA and DRAA according to vegetables.