Determination of quercetine in apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) and its seed by HPLC-MS

Quercetin is a compound of flavonol group that is subgroup of flavonoids. It has antioxidant and anticanserogen properties. Recently, there is an interest in the determination of quercetin concentrations in fruits and vegetables due to more advantages of its antioxidant compounds in natural samples than in synthetic drugs. Particularly, widespread use of HPLC-MS system combining from high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry (MS) allows to the determination of this compound in wide kinds of food samples.In this study, the parameters such as fragmentor potential, injection volume, column temperature, flow rate of mobile phase were optimized to obtain accurate, precise and sensitive results. The mixture of water/methanol/asetonitril/formic asid was used as mobile phase. The optimum conditions were found to be injection volume: 5.0 ?L, flow rate of mobile phase: 0.6 mL/min, column temperature: 30 oC and fragmentor potential: 140 V. The optimum parameters observed were applied to the determination of quercetin in apricot fruite and apricot seed samples grown in vicinity of Elazig city. The mixture of methanol/ascorbic acid/HCl was used to extract quercetin from the samples. Quercetin concentrations in the clear extracts were determined by using HPLC-MS. From the obtained results, the highest and the lowest concentrations for quercetin were found to be in the range of < LOQ- 12.9 ppm on wet weight basis. Quercetin concenttartion in apricot seeds was found lower than LOQ.Keywords: Appricot, quercetin, HPLC-MS, extraction.