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Updated: Oct 9, 2026

Characterization of Synthetic Polymers via Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) Mass Spectrometry
Published on: June 10, 2018
Thiolysis-HPLC characterization of apple procyanidins covering a large range of polymerization states
S Guyot1, N Marnet, J Drilleau
1Laboratoire de Recherches Cidricoles, Biotransformation des Fruits et Légumes, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, BP 29, 35650 Le Rheu, France. guyot@rennes.inra.fr
Abstract:
Procyanidins from the cortex of two cider apple varieties (Malus domestica; Kermerrien and Avrolles) were extracted by solvents. After a solid-phase extraction step, they were fractionated by normal- or reversed-phase HPLC at the semipreparative scale to obtain a series of purified fractions covering a wide range of polymerization states. Freeze-dried fractions were characterized by reversed-phase HPLC following thiolysis. Elution on normal-phase HPLC gave oligomeric procyanidins fractions with (average degree of polymerization) values varying from 2 to 8, whereas polymeric fractions ( values varying from 7 to 190) were obtained by reversed-phase HPLC. Constitutive units were mainly (-)-epicatechin with a proportion above 95% for all fractions. Thiolysis yields were wholly homogeneous with an average value of 75%, which indicates that the efficiency of the reaction did not depend on the polymerization state of the procyanidin fractions.
