Simultaneous determination of seven organic acids in Prunus mume with reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography

A method for simultaneous and rapid determination of 7 organic acids(i.e.,oxalic,tartaric,malic,lactic,acetic,citric and succinic acid) in Prunus mume with reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) was developed.HPLC was performed on a Hypersil ODS C18 column(250mm×4.6mm i.d.,5 μm) at 21℃,using KH2PO4(0.01 mol·L-1;pH 2.8) as mobile phase at the flow rate of 0.8 mL·min-1 and the detection wavelength of 215 nm.The recoveries of the organic acids ranged from 75.4% to 121.0% with relative standard deviations of 0.78%-2.12% and the limits of detection 0.022-1.290 μg·mL-1.The results of the 7 organic acids in 4 P.mume samples are presented.