Second and Third Derivatives of UV Spectra as a Tool for Identification of Major Anthocyanins from Aronia melanocarpa Extract, Separated Using Reversed-Phase High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

The aim of the study was to propose a method for identification of major anthocyanins in black chokeberry: cyanidin 3-O-β-D-galactopyranoside and cyanidin 3-O-α-L-arabinopyranoside, using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography on line with UV spectroscopy. The similarity indexes between standard spectra and spectra of major components of black chokeberry extract were calculated. The calculations were performed for zero-order spectra and first-fifth derivatives. Only the second and third derivatives of UV spectra provided correct identification of the compounds investigated. Third derivatives of spectra gave higher values of the parameters (calculated using Student's test) indicating statistical significance between similarity indexes to the derivatives of spectra of anthocyanin standards. Third derivative UV spectroscopy may be thus recommended as a tool to identify anthocyanins.