Evaluation of capillary electrochromatography (CEC) for the analysis of carotenoids in grapes.

During the first year of this project we received limited funding to explore the feasibility of the CEC approach for analysis of carotenoid standards and to set up the CE-MS interface. Initial results indicate that the CEC method with UV-Visible detection can effectively analyze -carotene. However, we have not fully optimized the separation for complex mixtures of carotenoids, In addition, the sample injection and sample preparation techniques require special consideration for CEC analysis in order to optimize sensitivity. Further work is needed to fully validate the method for a range of carotenoid compounds in a grape matrix.