A novel solid-phase extraction-HPLC method for the analysis of anthocyanin and organic acid composition of finnish cranberry

Spectrophotometric and liquid chromatographic methods were used to determine anthocyanin and organic acid content and composition of commercial Finnish cranberries (Vaccinium oxycoccos L.). Solid-phase adsorbents were used in the fractionation of juice components prior to chromatographic determination. In the freshly prepared cranberry juice the total amount of anthocyanins was 7.7 mg/100 mL juice determined spectrophotometrically at 510 nm. The most abundant individual anthocyanins were cyanidin-3-galactoside (19.2%), cyanidin-3-arabinoside (23.1%), peonidin-3-galactoside (21.5%) and peonidin-3-arabinoside (14.1%), as determined by RP-HPLC. The total titrable acidity was 3.8g/100g. The main organic acids were citric and malic acids, as determined using an HPLC method. Only a few studies have been conducted on this cranberry species, but more is known about the composition of species Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait. However, to our surprise, the anthocyanin composition of the berries used in this study was different from those reported previously.