1997 Volume 13 Issue 4 Pages 557-564
The major components of the fluid in a single parenchymatous cell of a citrus fruit were analyzed by various modes of high- performance capillary electrophoresis, including zone electrophoresis in the intact state (direct zone electrophoresis), zone electrophoresis as borate complexes and SDS micellar electrokinetic chromatography, and identified by successive introduction of the cell fluid and a solution containing authentic specimens of the major components, followed by comigration. The validity of identification by this co-migration technique is discussed based on experiments using cinnamyl alcohol and cinnamic acid as model compounds. On the other hand the volume of the cell fluid introduced to a capillary was estimated from the peak width of a neutral component, and the introduced amount of a particular component was determined from its peak area against the calibration curve. From these values of the introduced volume and amount, the concentration of this particular component could be easily estimated. This paper also gives an example of application of this method for determining the ascorbic acid concentration in single parenchymatous cells of various kinds of citrus fruits.