Rapid analytical method for the determination of organic and inorganic species in tomato samples through HPLC–ICP-AES coupling

A HPLC–inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES) hyphenation technique was used to determine the concentration of some organic (i.e., carbohydrates, carboxylic acids) as well as inorganic (metals and anions) compounds in tomato samples. A high efficiency nebulizer (HEN) coupled to a low inner volume cyclonic spray chamber (Cinnabar) was used to interface both techniques. The HPLC–ICP-AES chromatograms for organic compounds were obtained by plotting the 193.03 nm carbon emission intensity versus time. In the present work, it was also possible to obtain information about the concentration of several metals in foodstuffs. Finally, by registering the intensity at the sulphur and phosphorous emission wavelengths, the content of anions such as sulphate and phosphate was determined. In general terms, the results obtained with HPLC–ICP-AES did not differ significantly from those found with a refractive index detector. Due to the huge amount of information provided by this hyphenation, it was possible to apply it to the discrimination among different samples of native tomato cultivars.