An expedient ion chromatography based method for high-throughput analysis of phytic acid in groundnut kernels

A study was made to expedite ion chromatography method using IonPac analytical column and self-regenerating anion suppressor for phytic acid determination in groundnut seeds and compared with a widely adopted spectrophotometric method based on enzymatic hydrolysis. The Ion Chromatography method equipped with AG11 guard and AS11 analytical columns in isocratic mode using 65 mM NaOH mobile phase at 1 mL min^-1 flow rate showed a sharp peak for phytic acid with a retention time of 2.42 ± 0.2 min. The peak area was plotted v/s concentration showed linearity with an R² value of 0.997, detection limit of 0.028 mg L^-1 and recovery of 98% as against R² value of 0.988 and detection limit of 0.065 mg L^-1 in the spectrophotometric method. The study demonstrates that Ion Chromatography method was more accurate with a better detection limit than spectrophotometry. Also, this method provides robust handling with lesser reagent requirements due to combined eluent generation and self-regenerating suppression.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-022-05527-9.