The Differences in the Flavan-3-ol and Procyanidin Contents of the Japanese ‘Fuji’ and ‘Orin’ Apples Using a Rapid Quantitative High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Method: Estimation of the Japanese Intake of Flavan-3-ols and Procyanidins from Apple as Case Study
Toshihiko Shoji, Mina Obara, Tadashi Takahashi, Saeko Masumoto, Hironaka Hirota, Tomisato Miura
Abstract
Previously, we reported that apple polyphenols and their major active compounds, the flavan-3-ols and the procyanidins, can result in various health benefits in animals and humans, according to clinical studies. Here, we developed a rapid method for quantifying flavan-3-ols and procyanidins using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection, where we investigated the amounts of flavan-3-ols and procyanidins in the Japanese major apple production centre, the Aomori Prefecture, from 2016 to 2018. The non-bagged ‘Fuji (n = 609)’, the bagged ‘Fuji (n = 1101)’, and the ‘Orin (n = 504)’ apples were evaluated in terms of their differences in flavan-3-ols and procyanidins based on apple variety and the controlled atmosphere storage. The bagging treatments of the ‘Fuji’ apples resulted in significantly higher concentrations of procyanidins, while changes in flavan-3-ols concentrations were not clearly observed by treatment. In addition, ‘Orin’ had a significantly higher concentration of procyanidins than that of ‘Fuji’. In contrast, the controlled atmosphere storage hardly caused any changes in the flavan-3-ol and procyanidin contents. Hence, we present the concentrations of flavan-3-ols and procyanidins in major Japanese apples using the rapid high-performance liquid chromatography method with fluorescence detection.