Determination of anthocyanins in blood orange juices by HPLC analysis.

ABSTRACT

Determination of anthocyanins in fresh and concentrated juices can be a parameter for the assessment of authenticity and quality of blood orange juices. This work reports an HPLC/UV-Vis method developed for quantitative determination of anthocyanins in blood orange juices, by using a calibration curve obtained for standard cyanidin-3-glucoside. Samples analysed have been obtained from fruits of different trees (one for each of the varieties 'Moro', 'Tarocco', 'Sanguinello' and 'Sanguinello nocellare') harvested about every 15 days during the 1998 productive season. Seasonal variation has been also evaluated. HPLC results were compared with spectrophotometric measurements, using a calibration curve obtained for cyanidin-3-glucoside solutions. The two methods showed good agreement, but the results obtained greatly differed with the data reported in the literature.