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Simultaneous Determination of Six Protoalkaloids in Chinese Local Varieties of Loose-Skin Mandarins and Sweet Oranges by Strong Cation Exchange-High Performance Liquid Chromatography

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Abstract

Six protoalkaloids in the fruits of 34 Chinese local loose-skin mandarins and 25 sweet oranges were detected simultaneously by strong cation exchange-high performance liquid chromatography with an ultraviolet detector (SCX-HPLC-UV). Linear regression analysis showed satisfactory linearity for all the analytes with the correlation coefficients (R2) higher than 0.9998. The satisfactory recoveries of the six protoalkaloids in pulps at two spiked levels ranged from 82.8 to 93.4% (RSDs, 1.5–6.1%) and those of synephrine in peels ranged from 89.3 to 91.9% (RSDs, 4.8–5.3%). The limits of quantification (LOQs) were 0.2 mg kg−1. The proposed method was used to determinate the protoalkaloids in loose-skin mandarins and sweet oranges to evaluate its feasibility and accuracy. The major alkaloid in the tested samples was synephrine, and the predominant alkaloid was N-methyltyramine, followed by octopamine. The variations in alkaloid components and contents were both largely the same for the tested varieties, verifying that alkaloids in plants are genetically controlled.

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Funding

This work was supported financially by China Agriculture Research System (No. CARS-26), Fundamental Research Fund for the Central Universities (No. XDJK2017B034), and National Risk Assessment Program for Agricultural Products Quality and Safety (No. GJFP2018004).

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Correspondence to Yaohai Zhang or Bining Jiao.

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Yaohai Zhang declares that he has no conflict of interest. Bining Jiao declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Zhang, Y., Jiao, B. Simultaneous Determination of Six Protoalkaloids in Chinese Local Varieties of Loose-Skin Mandarins and Sweet Oranges by Strong Cation Exchange-High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Food Anal. Methods 12, 677–686 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-018-1401-0

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