Analysis of 10 nucleotides and related compounds in Litopenaeus vannamei during chilled storage by HPLC-DAD

• An HPLC-DAD method for analyzing 10 nucleotides and related compounds in L. vannamei.
• Column, pH and mobile phase were optimized and method was validated.
• Changes of NRCs in L. vannamei when stored at 4 °C were related to its flavor/freshness.

An HPLC-DAD method for the analysis of 10 nucleotides and related compounds (NRCs) in Litopenaeus vannamei was established. Hyperchloric acid was used to precipitate proteins. Samples were separated on an ODS-3 C18 (4.6 mm × 250 mm, 5 μm) column with 0.02 M phosphate buffer (pH = 5.8) as mobile phase A. All 10 NRCs were completely separated within 25 min. Good linearity was seen in the concentration range from 0 to 500 μmol/L with correlation coefficients between 0.9996 and 0.9999. Limit of detection was between 0.02 and 0.10 μg/mL and spike recoveries were between 72.5% and 110%. This method is facile, reliable, and accurate for the analysis of 10 NRCs in shrimp muscle samples. Using this method, the changes of NRCs in L. vannamei were studied during chilled storage at 4 °C. Important correlations between the changes of NRCs and the flavor/freshness of L. vannamei were proposed.