An industry consensus study on an HPLC fluorescence method for the determination of (±)-catechin and (±)-epicatechin in cocoa and chocolate products

摘要

This manuscript describes the results of an HPLC study for the determination of the flavan-3-ol monomers, (±)-catechin and (±)-epicatechin, in cocoa and plain dark and milk chocolate products. The study was performed under the auspices of the National Confectioners Association (NCA) and involved the analysis of a series of samples by laboratories of five member companies using a common method.The method reported in this paper uses reversed phase HPLC with fluorescence detection to analyze (±)-epicatechin and (±)-catechin extracted with an acidic solvent from defatted cocoa and chocolate. In addition to a variety of cocoa and chocolate products, the sample set included a blind duplicate used to assess method reproducibility. All data were subjected to statistical analysis with outliers eliminated from the data set.The percent coefficient of variation (CV) of the sample set ranged from approximately 7 to 15.Further experimental details are described in the body of the manuscript and the results indicate the method is suitable for the determination of (±)-catechin and (±)-epicatechin in cocoa and chocolate products and represents the first collaborative study of this HPLC method for these compounds in these matrices.