Simultaneous quantification of the main organic acids and carbohydrates involved in tomato flavour using capillary zone electrophoresis

A capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) procedure for the simultaneous determination of the major organic acids (oxalate, malate and citrate) and carbohydrates (fructose, glucose and sucrose) in Lycopersicon fruits is reported. Comparison of this method with routine HPLC methods indicates that the CZE method offers several attractive features (speed, resolution, sensitivity and cost) which significantly improve the determination of these compounds. Detection limits were better than 1.6 µg ml−1 for organic acids and from 13 to 24 µg ml−1 for carbohydrates; repeatabilities were better than 2.1% for migration times and between 1.4 and 7.3% for peak areas. The proposed protocol is very useful to characterise large series of tomato samples not only in breeding programmes but also in systematic and routine analysis in the tomato industry.