Determination of ten organic acids by low pressure liquid chromatography

Summary Organic acids, such as lactic, malic and citric acids, are involved in primary metabolism of all living organisms. Their presence in food products contributes to the flavour and their equilibrium with inorganic cations defines to a large extent the acidity of the food preparations. A resin cation-exchanger device, normally used for separating amino-acids, can be adapted for characterizing 10 organic acids: formic, propionic, fumaric, succinic, lactic, malic tartaric, citric, and oxalic. Two monitoring systems were used, one of them based on specific iron III salt coloration with hydroxy-acids.