A New Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatographic Method for the Quantification of Vitamin C in Fresh and Dried Goji Berries (Lycium barbarum L.) Cultivated in Turkey

Abstract Background The potential background of the study is related to comprehensive detection of the content of vitamin C with an actual chromatographic method. Objective Vitamin C is of vital importance in terms of human life and health due to its polyfunctional activity such as antioxidant activity and antiviral effect with other biological functions. In this regard, it may be necessary to update analytical methods or develop up-to-date analytical methods to accurately estimate the amount of vitamin C in natural samples. In this study, a new ultra-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection (UPLC-PDA) method has been developed for the determination of vitamin C content in fresh and dried goji berries (Lycium barbarum L.), which are cultivated in Turkey. Method The chromatographic elution of vitamin C in natural fruit samples was achieved on an ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 (1.7 µm, 2.1 mm × 100 mm) column using methanol and 0.1 M H3PO4 pH 2.15 (20:80, v/v), which are mobile phase. UPLC determination was done at the 242.8 nm. Flow rate was 0.20 mL/min at a column temperature of 30°C. Linearity range of the calibration graph was found to be at 5–30 µg/mL. The validity of the newly developed UPLC method was tested by analyzing individual test samples and added samples. Results Applicability of the validated UPLC method was verified by the quantitative analysis of vitamin C content in both fresh and dried goji berries. Conclusions We believe that the newly developed and validated UPLC method would be a useful and promising approach for simple quantitative analysis of goji berry samples for vitamin C. Highlights In previous studies, no UPLC-PDA method was reported for the analysis of vitamin C in goji berries. The method provided a good repeatability for the analysis of real samples.