Comparative study between extraction techniques and column separation for the quantification of sinigrin and total...

Glucosinolates are β-thioglycosides which are found naturally in Cruciferae including the genus Brassica. When enzymatically hydrolysed, glucosinolates yield isothiocyanates and give a pungent taste. Both glucosinolates and isothiocyanates have been linked with anticancer activity as well as antifungal and antibacterial properties and therefore the quantification of these compounds is scientifically important. A wide range of literature exists on glucosinolates, however the extraction and quantification procedures differ greatly resulting in discrepancies between studies. The aim of this study was therefore to compare the most popular extraction procedures to identify the most efficacious method and whether each extraction can also be used for the quantification of total isothiocyanates. Four extraction techniques were compared for the quantification of sinigrin from mustard cv. Centennial (Brassica juncea L.) seed; boiling water, boiling 50% (v/v) aqueous acetonitrile, boiling 100% methanol and 70% (v/v) aqueous methanol at 70 °C. Prior to injection into the HPLC, the extractions which involved solvents (acetonitrile or methanol) were freeze-dried and resuspended in water. To identify whether the same extract could be used to measure total isothiocyanates, a dichloromethane extraction was carried out on the sinigrin extracts. For the quantification of sinigrin alone, boiling 50% (v/v) acetonitrile was found to be the most efficacious extraction solvent of the four tested yielding 15% more sinigrin than the water extraction. However, the removal of the acetonitrile by freeze-drying had a negative impact on the isothiocyanate content. Quantification of both sinigrin and total isothiocyanates was possible when the sinigrin was extracted using boiling water. Two columns were compared for the quantification of sinigrin revealing the Zorbax Eclipse to be the best column using this particular method.