Examination on Existence of Ascorbate 2-Sulfate in Vegetable Foods

Abstract

Ascorbate 2-sulfate (AsS) has been found in brine shrimp cysts, rat tissues and human urine, but there has been no report on the presence of AsS in vegetable foods. In this paper the existence of AsS in vegetable foods was examined by thin-layer chromatography and Dowex 1-X2 column chromatography. We selected unpolished rice, sweet potato, welsh onion, cabbage, chinese cabbage, spinach, lettuce, radish, carrot, pumpkin, cucumber, tomato, apple, mandarin orange, banana, leaves of persimmon and sprout as testing vegetable foods. At first, the water extract of every sample was tested on thin-layer chromatography using solvent system 1,chloroform・methanol・water・acetic acid (65 : 50 : 15 : 1 by vol.) and/or solvent system 2,n-butanol・acetic acid・water (50 : 20 : 30 by vol.). Especially, the water extracts of cucumber and sprout were chromatographed on Dowex 1-X2 column. No AsS was detected in various classes of vegetable foods as the result of chromatographies. It might be suggested that AsS would be absent in common vegetable foods.