Determination of phenolic compounds derived from hydrolysable tannins in biological matrices by RP-HPLC.

An RP-HPLC method for the determination of four phenolic compounds: gallic acid (GA), pyrogallol (PY), resorcinol (RE) and ellagic acid (EA), derived from hydrolysable tannins is reported. Separation was achieved on a SunFire C18 (250 x 4.6 mm id, 5 microm) column at 40 degrees C with gradient elution. UV detection at 280 nm was applied. The developed method was validated in terms of linearity, accuracy and precision. Satisfactory repeatability and between day precision were noticed with RSD values lower than 3%. Recoveries from different biological samples ranged from 91.50 to 105.25%. The LODs were estimated as 1.70 mg/L for PY, 1.68 mg/L for GA, 1.52 mg/L for RE and 0.98 mg/L for EA with a 20 microL injection volume. The method was applied for the determination of these compounds in oak leaves and in ruminal fluid and urine samples taken from beef cattle fed with oak leaves. The proposed method could be used in ruminant nutrition studies to verify the effect that a diet rich in tannins have on ruminal fermentation and to determine the toxicity of these compounds.

Simultaneous determination of adenine and guanine in ruminant bacterial pellets by ion-pair HPLC.

An ion-pair reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with gradient elution and UV detection was used to measure adenine (A) and guanine (G) in lyophilized bacterial pellets from ruminants using allopurinol as internal standard. The separation was performed on a Symmetry C18 column and the detection was monitored at 280 nm. Calibration curves were found to be linear in the concentration range from 5 to 50 mg/l with correlation coefficients (r2)>0.999. Mean recoveries of A and G standards added to bacterial samples were 102.2 and 98.2, respectively. The method proposed yielded sharp, well-resolved peaks within 25 min and was successfully applied for the determination of A and G in bacterial pellets.