SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION OF SOLUBLE SUGARS AND ORGANIC-ACIDS AS THEIR TRIMETHYLSILYL DERIVATIVES IN APRICOT FRUITS BY GAS-LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY

The aim of this study was to determine a reliable procedure for the qu antification of organic acids, alcohol soluble sugars and sugar alcoho ls in fruit flesh by means of a rapid GLC method, without resorting to methoximation of sugars and employing apricot as a model. The use of two internal standards, an accurate derivatization and a proper calibr ation of the GLC conditions allowed an accurate quantitative analysis of the compounds detected in the unknown samples. This simple procedur e improves the speed of preparation of the trimethylsilyl derivatives and is highly reproducible. Variability was found between years for ea ch of the five cultivars studied and for each compound in terms of abs olute values, whereas the percentage incidence of the single sugars as a total was more stable over the two years of observation.