Rapid high-performance liquid chromatographic identification/quantification of total vitamin C in fruit drinks

A rapid and simple analysis for the identification/quantification of l-ascorbic acid (AsA) in fruit drinks by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a photo-diode array detector was developed. The presence of dehydroascorbic acid was reduced by dithiothreitol before HPLC analysis. A J’sphere® ODS-H80 column (250×4.6 mm2 i.d.) with a mobile phase of 2% (v/v) acetic acid solution was used for the HPLC separation. AsA in sample could be identified by the retention time and absorption spectrum. The practical limit of detection was 10 μg/ml. The total time required for the analysis of one sample was less than half an hour.