Determination of Quinic and Shikimic Acids in Products Derived from Bees and their Preparates by HPLC

Abstract

An HPLC method was developed for determination of some organic acids in propolis, honey, and pastilles. The on‐line coupled Separon SGX C18 and Polymer IEX H‐form column with mobile phase composed of sulphuric acid 9 mmol/L and methanol (95:5) at a flow rate 0.8 mL/min and spectrophotometric detection at 215 nm were used for the determination of quinic acid and shikimic acid. Limit of detection of quinic acid was 10 µg/mL and shikimic acid 0.43 µg/mL. Limits of quantitation were 30 µg/mL for quinic acid and 1.26 µg/mL for shikimic acid. Shikimic acid concentrations from 4.2 to 309.0 µg/g and quinic acid concentrations from 0.2 to 6.2 mg/g were determined in all tested bees products. The differences in the acid concentrations were observed for propolis samples from East and West Slovakia.

Keywords:

• Quinic acid
• Shikimic acid
• Propolis
• Honey
• Pastilles
• HPLC

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Grant Agency of Slovak Republic (grants no. 1/2460/05 and 1/1186/04) and Slovak Research and Development Agency (project no. 20‐035205).