A new method for the quantitative determination of ascorbic acid in flour by high performance liquid chromatography

The efforts of the identification and quantitation of ascorbic acid in flour were not very successful in the past as there were insufficient possibilities of extraction and instability in solution at low concentrations. In this newly developed method, the extraction of ascorbic acid was performed in aqueous solution with cysteine, the stability in solution was achieved with dithioerythritol, Quantitation was realized by high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection. The method is suitable for the routine determination of ascorbic acid in flour as it is simple, rapid, specific, sensitive and reproducable. The calibration graph of ascorbic acid is linear in the range 0-50.0 mu g/ml. The stability of ascorbic acid in solution is given if determined within 8 h. Dependant on the homogenity of distribution of the ascorbic acid in flour, covery is over 95% by the standard addtition method. The detection limit is 1 mg ascorbic acid per 1 kg of flour.