Analysis of anthocyane glycosides in human serum

Anthocyanins, natural food antioxidants, can be identified in human blood p lasma using a restricted access phase for removal of the proteins and enric hment of the anthocyanins. In preliminary studies the spray dried elderberr y juice was shown to have antioxidant activities in vitro. From the four kn own anthocyanins present in elder-berry (Sambucus nigra) the two main compo nents could be analysed quantitatively enabling their analysis in blood. Us ing a restricted access phase and a column switching set-up the injection o f high volumes of concentrated protein solutions is possible. Additional, b y using high injection volumes the sensitivity is increased due to a concen tration of the analytes on the restricted access phase. The limit of quanti fication reached was 0.5 ng/mL. In this experiment the maximum concentratio n in blood (35 mg/mL) was observed after 1 h with a quick decay.