Simultaneous Determination of Benzoic Acid, Caffeic Acid and Chlorogenic Acid in Seeds of Eriobotrya japonica and their Antibacterial Effect

We aim to develop a simple method for simultaneous and quantitative determination of benzoic acid, caffeic acid and chlorogenic acid in seeds of Eriobotrya japonica. In addition, antibacterial effect of these three phenolic acids was examined. A basic method is performed on the high performance liquid chromatography system coupled to an UV-detector (230 nm) and reverse phase C-18 column (4.6×150 mm, 5 μm). Each phenolic acid was confirmed via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (MS)/MS system under the multiple-reaction monitoring with negative-ion electrospray ionization (ESI(-)) mode. It is demonstrated that the method was could be applied to samples for an analytical study of the phenolic acids. On the other hand, three phenolic acids in seeds of E. japonica exhibited antibacterial effect against several pathogenic bacteria. Of these, benzoic acid was found to have stronger antibacterial effect.