Abstract
•Simultaneous quantification of flavanones in citrus fruit beverages.•Derivatization of flavanones using methoxyamine and trideuteromethoxyamine.•Use of stable isotope tagged internal standard.
Flavanones, a class of flavonoids present in large amounts in fruits and vegetables, have been assayed by LC–MS/MS and derivatization chemistry using d0/d3-labelled derivatized internal standards obtained by simple reaction procedures which involves d0/d3 methoxyamine. The assay method considers 13 flavanones including aglycones, neohesperidosides, rutinosides and 3-hydroxy-3-methyl glutaryl derivatives. The strengths of the method consist in a relative short analysis time (16min) and good repeatability and reproducibility values which are in most cases under 10% (RSD%). The accuracy values range from 95.4% to 111.3% whilst the LOQ values ranges from 0.05 to 0.29mg/L depending on the analyte.