Flavonoids electrochemical detection in fruit extracts and total antioxidant capacity evaluation

Phenolic compounds detection in fruit extracts from: açai, bacuri, buriti, blackberry, black mulberry, blueberry, juçara, physalis, raspberry, and tamarillo, have been performed by reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection (RP-HPLC-EC), using two detectors in series: a wall-jet detector flow cell with a glassy carbon electrode, and a thin-layer flow cell detector with a boron doped diamond electrode. This methodology, in gradient elution mode, was successfully used to detect seventeen phenolic compounds in the fruit extracts. The total antioxidant capacity of the fruit extracts by the electrochemical quantitative index (EI) and the method of capture of diphenilpicrilhydrazil (DPPH(●)) free radical "efficient concentration" (EC50), was evaluated. A very good correlation between EI and EC50 assays has been obtained, the fruit with the highest total antioxidant capacity being blackberry, while physalis exhibited the lowest antioxidant power.