Separation, characterization, and quantitation of benzoic and phenolic antioxidants in American cranberry fruit by GC-MS

A GC-MS method is reported for separation and characterization of widely different amounts of benzoic and phenolic acids as their trimethylsilyl derivatives simultaneously in cranberry. Fifteen benzoic and phenolic acids (benzoic, o-hydroxybenzoic, cinnamic, m-hydroxybenzoic, p-hydroxybenzoic, p-hydroxyphenyl acetic, phthalic, 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic, vanillic, o-hydroxycinnamic, 2,4-dihydroxybenzoic, p-coumaric, ferulic, caffeic, and sinapic acid) were identified in cranberry fruit in their free and bound forms on the basis of GC retention times and simultaneously recorded mass spectra. Except for benzoic, p-coumaric, caffeic, ferulic, and sinapic acids, 10 other phenolic acids identified have not been reported in cranberry before. The quantitation of the identified components was based on total ion current (TIC). The experimental results indicated cranberry fruit contains a high content of benzoic and phenolic acids (5.7 g/kg fresh weight) with benzoic acid being the most abundant (4.7 g/kg fresh weight). The next most abundant are p-coumaric (0.25 g/kg fresh weight) and sinapic (0.21 g/kg fresh weight) acid. Benzoic and phenolic acids occur mainly in bound forms and only about 10% occurs as free acid.