Importance of phenolic compounds for the characterization of fruit juices

Several commercial juices of orange, apple, pineapple, peach, apricot, pear, and grape have been analyzed by HPLC and TLC to establish their phenolic composition. Benzoic acids and aldehydes, 3-flavanols, flavonols, chalcones, cinnamic acids, and their derivatives in the form of esters and glycosides have been studied. Hydroxycinnamic acid esters with tartaric acid are typical of grape, phloridzin is typical of apple, and isorhamnetin glycosides are typical of pear. Myricetin is only found in peach, and luteolin and apigenin glucosides are found only in orange. Apricot could be detected by the presence of two coumarins and pineapple by the presence of sinapic acid and the absence of the flavonoids studied in this work.We acknowledge financial support from the Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (Project ALI91-0468).Peer reviewe