Analysis of Organic Acids in Three Commercial Fruit Juice Samples Sold Across Nigeria

Fruit juice is one of the highly consumed packaged drinks in Nigeria. As a result of the large consumption and to know the levels of organic acids in them, three (3) fruit juices were selected. The analysis of organic acids in the three fruit juice samples sold within Nigeria was carried out using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC- Agilent 1260 infinity). A reversed-phase separation using a C-18 column was employed, followed by the organic acids quantification. An isocratic elution method using a buffered mobile phase of KH<sub>2</sub>PO<sub>4</sub> adequately aided the separation.<sub> </sub>The organic acids detected comprised oxalic acid, tartaric acid, fumaric acid, ascorbic acid, citric acid, and succinic acid. The results revealed that levels of citric acid in the three samples ranged from 0.23 to 1.07 mg/mL, the levels of ascorbic acid ranged from 0.0016 to 0.203 mg/mL, and the values of oxalic acid ranged from 0.24 to 4.41 mg/mL. As revealed in the results, the organic acids of interest were available in the fruits juices. However, Sample A was the only orange juice that showed a significant amount of tartaric acid recording 0.5 mg/mL. The method demonstrated good linearity, precision, and accuracy making it suitable for routine analysis of juice samples.