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Updated: Apr 28, 2026
Improved UPLC-UV Method for the Quantification of Vitamin C in Lettuce Varieties Lactuca sativa L. and Crop Wild Relatives Lactuca spp.
Published on: June 30, 2020
Routine sample preparation and HPLC analysis for ascorbic acid (vitamin C) determination in wheat plants and
Gabriella Szalai1, T Janda1, Magda Pál1
1Hungarian Academy of Sciences Department of Plant Physiology, Agricultural Institute, Centre for Agricultural Research Brunszvik u. 2 H-2462 Martonvásár Hungary.
Abstract:
Plants have developed various mechanisms to protect themselves against oxidative stress. One of the most important non-enzymatic antioxidants is ascorbic acid. There is thus a need for a rapid, sensitive method for the analysis of the reduced and oxidised forms of ascorbic acid in crop plants. In this paper a simple, economic, selective, precise and stable HPLC method is presented for the detection of ascorbate in plant tissue. The sensitivity, the short retention time and the simple isocratic elution mean that the method is suitable for the routine quantification of ascorbate in a high daily sample number. The method has been found to be better than previously reported methods, because of the use of an economical, readily available mobile phase, UV detection and the lack of complicated extraction procedures. The method has been tested on Arabidopsis plants with different ascorbate levels and on wheat plants during Cd stress.
