Determination of ellagic acid in oak leaves and in sheep ruminal fluid by ion-pair RP-HPLC

An isocratic ion-pair high-performance liquid chromatography (IP-RP-HPLC) method with UV detection was developed to identify and quantify ellagic acid (EA). This phenolic compound is widely distributed in the plants and is often present in the diet of ruminants. The method was validated and validation parameters were: linearity range 5–100 mg/L; correlation coefficient, 0.9995; mean recoveries (99.94 and 101.07%) and detection limit 1.4 mg/L. Method was applied for the determination of ellagic acid in oak leaves and in ruminal fluid from to a vitro ruminal system. The proposed method proved to be rapid and accurate and can be successfully used in ruminant nutrition studies.