Simultaneous separation and determination of fructose, sorbitol, glucose and sucrose in fruits by HPLC–ELSD

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with evaporative light scattering detection (ELSD) was optimised for simultaneous determination of fructose, sorbitol, glucose and sucrose in fruits. The analysis was carried out on a Phenomenex Luna 5u NH2 100A column (250 mm × 4.60 mm, 5 micron) with isocratic elution of acetonitrile:water (82.5:17.5, v/v). Drift tube temperature of the ELSD system was set to 82 °C and nitrogen flow rate was 2.0 L min−1. The regression equation revealed good linear relationship (R = 0.9967–0.9989) within test ranges. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) for four analytes (peach, apple, watermelon, and cherry fruits) were in the range of 0.07–0.27 and 0.22–0.91 mg L−1, respectively. The proposed HPLC–ELSD method was validated for quantification of sugars in peach, apple, watermelon, and cherry fruits, and the results were satisfactory. The results showed that the contents of the four sugars varied among fruits. While fructose (5.79–104.01 mg g−1) and glucose (9.25–99.62 mg g−1) emerged as common sugars in the four fruits, sorbitol (8.70–19.13 mg g−1) were only found in peach, apple and cherry fruits, and sucrose (15.82–106.39 mg g−1) were in peach, apple and watermelon. There was not detectable sorbitol in watermelon and sucrose in cherry fruits, respectively.