Phloroglucinol from phlorin hydrolysis for testing quality of commercial orange juices and beverages

The European Association of Juices and Nectars Producers (AIJN) is evaluating the opportunity to introduce the content of phlorin (3,5-dihydroxyphenyl beta-D-glucopyranoside), a peel marker for oranges, as a parameter for testing the quality of orange juices. Because of the lack of a commercial standard of phlorin and its laborious isolation procedures, in this contribution is developed a simple and reliable method for measuring the phlorin level as the corresponding aglycon phloroglucinol, obtained after a total enzymatic hydrolysis of the sample. The method was applied to the quantification of phloroglucinol in several industrial and commercial blond and pigmented orange juices and beverages based on 12% orange juice. Under the same extraction procedure, the phloroglucinol content in the pigmented juices was higher than in the blond ones. No significant difference was obtained between not from concentrate juices and reconstituted from concentrate juices. The marker amount increases in the highly processed orange fruits and in the byproducts of citrus processing due to the contact of the juice with the albedo, which is the major source of phlorin. In orange-based beverages the phloroglucinol content revealed a large heterogeneity and a poor quality of the raw juices used.