Quantitative analysis of procyanidine

Reversed-phase HPLC is the method of choice for the quantitative analysis of procyanidins. In view of the known instability of procyanidins and the problem of developing suitable sample clean up procedures direct analysis of crude extracts is probably the best approach for quantitation. However, the separation capacity of HPLC in combination with the most commonly used UV detection at 280 nm is generally insufficient to generate useful quantitative results. Direct chromatographic determination of procyanidins in qualitative analysis has been frequently performed for example in the analysis of wine [168,252], beer [32], grape seeds [28], rhizomes of tormentil (Potentilla tormentilla) [253], Sesbania sesban... 

Table (11) gives an overview on the LC-MS methods described in the literature. The vast majority of studies has been performed with the thermospray interface in the positive ionization mode. Thermospray detection is not very sensitive [279], For procyanidins a detection limit of 1 ig has been reported [269], No data are available on the detection limits of procyanidins using other types of interfaces. So far, LC-MS has not yet been applied to the quantitative analysis of procyanidins. 

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