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New Perspectives of Quantum Dots in the Food Field: Determination of β-Carotene in Tropical Fruit Juices and Food Supplements

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Abstract

A novel and simple method for the determination of β-carotene, a carotenoid abundant in plants and fruits, is proposed. Multicommutated flow injection analysis (MCFIA) has been applied as automated flow methodology to the analysis of β-carotene in tropical fruit juices and food supplements, making use of the quenching effect caused by this analyte over glutathione-capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) fluorescence signal. Under optimized conditions, the method was linear in the range of 0.3–15 μg mL−1, with a detection limit of 0.09 μg mL−1 and relative standard deviations lower than 3%. The determination rate was of about 80 h−1, and results were in good agreement with those provided by both the manufacturer and a chromatographic reference method.

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Acknowledgements

J.J.L. acknowledges research scholarship from Spanish Government (“Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia”).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical and Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Experimental Sciences, University of Jaén, Campus de las Lagunillas, E-23071, Jaén, Spain

    J. Jiménez-López, P. Ortega-Barrales & A. Ruiz-Medina

  2. REQUIMTE, Laboratory of Applied Chemistry, Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, Porto University, Rua Jorge Viterbo Ferreira, 228, 4050-313, Porto, Portugal

    J.L.M. Santos

Authors
  1. J. Jiménez-López
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  2. J.L.M. Santos
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  3. P. Ortega-Barrales
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  4. A. Ruiz-Medina
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. Ruiz-Medina.

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Funding

This study was funded by the “Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad” (grant number CTQ2016-7511-R).

Conflict of Interest

J. Jiménez-López declares that she has no conflict of interest. J.L.M. Santos declares that he has no conflict of interest. P. Ortega-Barrales declares that she has no conflict of interest. A. Ruiz-Medina declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Jiménez-López, J., Santos, J., Ortega-Barrales, P. et al. New Perspectives of Quantum Dots in the Food Field: Determination of β-Carotene in Tropical Fruit Juices and Food Supplements. Food Anal. Methods 10, 2412–2421 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-017-0811-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-017-0811-8

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