SIMULTANEOUS GAS-LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF SUGARS AND ORGANIC-ACIDS AS TRIMETHYLSILYL DERIVATIVES IN VEGETABLES AND STRAWBERRIES

The simultaneous determination of organic acids (succinic, malic, pimelic, tartaric, shikimic, citric, quinic, caffeic and chlorogenic acids), sorbitol and sugars (arabinose, rhamnose, fructose, galactose, glucose, sucrose, maltose and raffinose) as trimethylsilyl (TMS)-oxime and TMS derivatives in a single solution has been developed. The optimum conditions for the simultaneous derivatization and the rapid quantitative evaluation of the nineteen compounds by capillary gas-liquid chromatography are reported in this paper. Reproducibility data reveal that greater-than-or-equal-to 0.02-mu-g of acids in the presence of less-than-or-equal-to 12-mu-g of sugars can be determined with a relative standard error (R.S.E.) of less-than-or-equal-to 11.2%, whereas the main constituents are determined with an R.S.E. of less-than-or-equal-to 3.6%.