Simultaneous determination of phenolic metabolites in Chinese citrus and grape cultivars

Background As the major bioactive compounds in citrus and grape, it is significant to use the contents of flavonoids and phenolic acids as quality evaluation criteria to provide a better view of classifying the quality and understanding the potential health benefits of each fruit variety. Methods A total of 15 varieties of citrus and 12 varieties of grapes were collected from Fujian, China. High-performance liquid chromatography method was used for the simultaneous determination of 17 phenolic compounds, including gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, syringic acid, ρ-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, benzoic acid, salicylic acid, catechin, epicatechin, resveratrol, rutin, naringin, hesperidin, quercetin, nobiletin and tangeritin in the peels of citrus and grape cultivars. Further, the cultivars of citrus and grape were classified using principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). Results A thorough separation of the 17 compounds was achieved within 100 min. The tested method exhibited good linearity (the limits of detection and limits of quantification were in the range of 0.03–1.83 µg/mL and 0.09–5.55 µg/mL, respectively), precision (the relative standard deviations of repeatability were 1.02–1.97%), and recovery (92.2–102.82%) for all the compounds, which could be used for the simultaneous determination of phenolic compounds in citrus and grape. Hesperidin (12.93–26,160.98 µg/g DW) and salicylic acid (5.35–751.02 µg/g DW) were the main flavonoids and phenolic acids in 15 citrus varieties, respectively. Besides, the hesperidin (ND to 605.48 µg/g DW) and salicylic acid (ND to 1,461.79 µg/g DW) were found as the highest flavonoid and the most abundant phenolic acid in grapes, respectively. A total of 15 citrus and 12 grape samples were classified into two main groups by PCA and HCA with strong consistency.