High pressure liquid chromatographic determination of major organic acids in cranberry juice

A reverse phase high pressure liquid chromatographic method is presented for the simultaneous separation and determination of quinic, malic, and citric acids in single strength, undiluted cranberry juice. After a 1 : 10 dilution and cleanup through a disposable column, major organic acids in cranberry juice are separated on a Bondapak/C18 column and quantitated by using a differential refractometer. Twenty-seven samples of different single strength cranberry juice were analyzed using this method; the mean content of quinic, malic, and citric acids were 1.32 (std dev. 0.150), 0.92 (std dev. 0.079), and 1.08% (std dev. 0.111), respectively. Mean percent recoveries of each acid were quinic 95.4 (std dev. 6.8), malic 96.6 (std dev. 5.8), and citric 94.0% (std dev. 4.8).