1. Investigación

Asimple and rapid capillary electrophoresis method for low-molecular mass carboxylic acids measurement in coffee has been optimised and validated. Regarding separation conditions, phosphate concentration in the background electrolyte, surfactant type [cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), tetradecyltri methylammonium bromide (TTAB) and hexadimethrine bromide (HDB)], percentages of organic modifier and pH were assayed. The best conditions were: 500mM phosphate buffer at pH 6.25 with CTAB 0.5 mM. The separation was carried out with an uncoated fused-silica capillary (57 cm×50 m i.d.) which was operated at −10 kV potential. Detection was performed at 200 nm. In such conditions 17 short-chain organic acids: oxalic, formic, fumaric, mesaconic, succinic, maleic, malic, isocitric, citric, acetic, citraconic, glycolic, propionic, lactic, furanoic, pyroglutamic, quinic acids plus nitrate were separated, identified and measured. Validation parameters of the method allow us to consider it lineal, accurate and precise and, therefore, reliable for its employment in food composition studies or for quality control. Results in coffees with different industrial treatment allow the detection of important differences in the organic acid profile.

It is of interest to measure the short chain organic acid content in natural latex serum, and capillary electrophoresis (CE) has proved to be a good tool for this study. However, for some acids, a higher sensitivity than that provided by the standard methods was needed. Therefore, a stacking effect was optimised and applied both for standards and real samples. Large-volume injection of sample solutions prepared in low conductivity matrices containing 50% acetonitrile (v/v) and 0.5% NaCl (w/v) gave the best results with enhancement factors over 17 and recoveries ranging from 83 ± 14 to 122 ± 4%.

Short-chain organic acid contents in serum of natural latex are interesting to measure and capillary electrophoresis (CE) has proved to be a good tool for their study. In the present work a method has been developed to identify the short-chain organic acids present in sera of natural rubber latex (oxalic, formic, fumaric, aconitic, succinic, malic, glutaric, citric, acetic, glycollic, propionic and quinic acids), the separation was optimised and the quantification method validated. The separation was performed on a CE system with UV detection at 200 nm. The separation was carried out with an uncoated fused-silica capillary (57 cm350 mm I.D.) and was operated at 210 kV potential. The separation buffers were prepared with 0.5 M H PO , 0.5 mM cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and pH adjusted by adding NaOH to 6.25 except for propionic acid 3 4 which was better measured at pH 7.00. Validation parameters are adequate and limits of detection range from 0.005 mM to 1.6 mM. Short-chain organic acids were measured with this method in sera of three different types of latex.