Determination of ellagic acid in rose matrix by spectrofluorimetry

Abstract Ellagic acid is a naturally occurring polyphenol with many verified and alleged bioactivities. This study presents a validated, sensitive and fast spectrofluorimetric method to determine ellagic acid in rose matrix, based on the fluorescence properties of ellagic acid–borax complex in methanolic extract. In the presence of rose matrix, a calibration curve was linear in a wide concentration range from 0.5 nmol/L to 1.0 μmol/L of EA, and the detection and quantification limits of ellagic acid were 34.7 nmol/L and 0.11 μmol/L, respectively. We used the validated method to determine the content of ellagic acid in lyophilized and dried rosehip products available in Poland. The rosehip contains a significant content of ellagic acid (from 32 to 44 μg/g of dried/freeze-dried material). All spectrofluorimetric results were in good agreement with those obtained by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry with a single quadrupole analyzer used as a reference method.