Fast determination of bioactive phytic acid and pyrophosphate in walnuts using microwave accelerated extraction

Bioactive compounds phytic acid (IP6) and pyrophosphate (PPi) are minor components of walnuts with the ability of being inhibitors of urolithiasis, among others. Since simultaneous analysis of IP6 and PPi have known drawbacks, a new method to determine their content in walnuts has been developed with emphasis on their extraction from walnuts by microwave-assisted extraction (MAE). Acid content of extracting solvent, extraction time and temperature were optimized. After extraction, compounds were purified by selective adsorption/desorption on an anion exchange solid phase extraction and analyzed by inductive coupled plasma/mass spectrometry. A mixture of H₂SO₄ and HCl as solvent to extract both, IP6 and PPi, provided results slightly higher than those determined by conventional extraction with no statistical difference. The possible hydrolysis of phytic acid by MAE was analyzed. Compared with the conventional acid extraction method, significant improvement is achieved by the MAE method reducing extraction time from 3h to 10min.