Abstract:

A reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method was established to determine
the contents of ellagic acid in six red raspberry cultivars grown in northeast China. Meanwhile, the results were compared
with those of the blueberry fruit. A SinoChrom DS-BP C18 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) was used to separate ellagic
acid; the mobile phase was a mixture of 0.3% phosphate and methanol solution (60:40, V/V) at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min;
the column temperature was set at 30 ℃ and the UV detection wavelength was 254 nm. Our results indicated that ellagic
acid could be separated well, and a good linear relationship appeared between the content of ellagic acid in the range of 0.1–1 μg
and peak area with correlation coefficient of 0.999 3. The relative standard deviation (RSD) was 0.06% for precision, 0.09% for
reproducibility, and 0.39% for stability. The average recovery rates of ellagic acid from spiked samples were between 93.00% and
98.62% with RSD of 0.21%–0.42%. The proposed method is convenient, accurate, and repeatable. The contents of total ellagic
acid in different red raspberry cultivars varied from 39.10 to 155.98 mg/100 g, and the content of free ellagic acid was in the range
of 1.24 to 8.26 mg/100 g. Red raspberry is rich in ellagic acid, and it could be fully developed and utilized.

Key words: red raspberry, ellagic acid, reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC)