Chromatographic fingerprint and its application to quality control of Cocoa powder

Objective: To establish the chromatographic fingerprint analysis for the quality control of Cocoapowder.Methods: RP-HPLC was applied to establish the chromatographic fingerprint.The separation wasperformed on a Agilent ZORBAX Extend-C18column ( 250mm × 4.6mm, 5μm) with a gradient elution composed of acetonitrile and0.05% phosphate buffer solution. The column temperature was set at 30℃ and the flowrate was 0.8mL /min. The detective wavelength was at 210nm.10 batches of cocoa powder mapping were determined.The similarity analysis and cluster analysis were used to classify the cocoa powder. Results: With high precision, stability and good repeatability, the HPLC fingerprint was established. Five characteristic peaks were established in the fingerprint, three of them were identified.The mutual model of Cocoa powder was established and the similaritiy was more than0.90.10 batches of Cocoa powder were divided into three categories by system clustering analysis.Conclusion: The method is simple and accurate with good reproducibility.It can be used for the quality control of Cocoa powder.