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Determination of melatonin levels in different cherry cultivars by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrochemical detection

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Abstract

The determination of melatonin has been reported in several fruits, including cherries. This study had the goal to evaluate melatonin levels present in five different cherry cultivars from the region of Fundão in Portugal, a well-known location for this fruit cultivation. Three of the five cultivars are evaluated for the first time regarding melatonin levels (Saco, Summit and Sunburst). To determine the presence of this hormone, a reliable analytical method was developed and fully validated, and an SPE procedure was applied and optimized using Oasis® HLB cartridges to concentrate melatonin and clean-up the samples before analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrochemical detection. The extraction efficiency from fresh matrices varied from 74 to 91%, while the absolute recoveries (SPE clean-up) of melatonin ranged from 61 to 75%. The procedure was considered linear for concentrations ranging from 0.025 to 4 µg/mL with a mean R 2 value of 0.9974 and with calibrators’ accuracy (mean relative error) within a ±15% interval for all concentrations. The concentrations of melatonin found in the different cherry cultivars ranged from 11 to 28 ng/g of fresh fruit, and Burlat cultivar was the one presenting the highest level of this hormone.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by FEDER funds through the POCI-COMPETE 2020-Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalisation in Axis I-Strengthening research, technological development and innovation (Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007491) and National Funds by FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology (Project UID/Multi /00709/2013). T. Rosado acknowledges the Programa Operacional Regional do Centro 2007–2013 QREN (Programa “Mais Centro”) in the form of a fellowship (CENTRO-07-ST24-FEDER-002012), reference TDM-2-006.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Centro de Investigação em Ciências da Saúde (CICS-UBI), Universidade da Beira Interior, Av. Infante D. Henrique, 6200-506, Covilhã, Portugal

      T. Rosado, I. Henriques, Eugenia Gallardo & A. P. Duarte

    2. Laboratório de Fármaco-Toxicologia-UBIMedical, Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

      T. Rosado, Eugenia Gallardo & A. P. Duarte

    Author notes

    1. T. Rosado and I. Henriques contributed equally to this paper.

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      1. T. Rosado
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      Correspondence to Eugenia Gallardo.

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      Rosado, T., Henriques, I., Gallardo, E. et al. Determination of melatonin levels in different cherry cultivars by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrochemical detection. Eur Food Res Technol 243, 1749–1757 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00217-017-2880-8

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