Cyclodextrin-assisted liquid-solid extraction for determination of the composition of jujube fruit using ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection and quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry

A novel, simple and environmental friendly sample preparation technique based on the use of cyclodextrin has been developed for the extraction of phenolic compounds from jujube samples, the analytes being finally determined by ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry was used to characterize the composition of jujube fruit. The present method exhibited higher efficiency for extracting phenolic compositions than Pharmacopoeia heat-reflux approach in term of peak areas. Moreover, compared with traditional ultrasound-assisted extraction, the developed methodology was found without the use of toxic organic solvent, meeting the principles of green chemistry. Validation experiments showed that the proposed method presented good linearity (r2 > 0.9970), satisfactory precision (RSD < 7.55%), and high recovery (85.63-105.67%). The limits of detection were from 4.92 ng/mL to 142.85 ng/mL for eight phenolic compounds. Eventually, the optimized approach was successfully applied to the analysis of jujube fruit.