Improved UPLC-UV Method for the Quantification of Vitamin C in Lettuce Varieties (Lactuca sativa L.) and Crop Wild Relatives (Lactuca spp.)Inés Medina-Lozano *1,4, Juan Ramón Bertolín *2,4, Raquel Zufiaurre 3, Aurora Díaz 1,4
1Unidad de Hortofruticultura, Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón (CITA), 2Unidad de Producción y Sanidad Animal, Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón (CITA), 3Dpto Química Analítica, Escuela Politécnica Superior (Universidad de Zaragoza), 4Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón - IA2 (CITA-Universidad de Zaragoza)
We present a fast and reliable method to quantify vitamin C in Lactuca spp. using UPLC-UV, potentially transferable to other plants. The key steps are the sample preparation and vitamin C extraction under stable conditions, the reduction of dehydroascorbic acid to ascorbic acid and the optimization of the chromatographic procedure.