Development of a Thiolysis HPLC Method for the Analysis of Procyanidins in Cranberry Products

The objective of this study was to develop a thiolysis HPLC method to quantify total procyanidins, the ratio of A type linkages, and A-type procyanidin equivalents in cranberry products. Cysteamine was utilized as a low-odor substitute of toluene-a-thiol for thiolysis depolymerization. A reaction temperature of 70 degrees C and reaction time of 20 min, in 0.3 M of HCl, were determined to be optimum depolymerization conditions. Thiolytic products of cranberry procyanidins were separated by RP-HPLC and identified using high-resolution mass spectrometry. Standards curves of good linearity were obtained on thiolyzed procyanidin dimer A2 and B2 external standards. The detection and quantification limits, recovery, and precision of this method were validated. The new method was applied to quantitate total procyanidins, average degree of polymerization, ratio of A-type linkages, and A-type procyanidin equivalents in cranberry products. Results showed that the method was suitable for quantitative and qualitative analysis of procyanidins in cranberry products.