Quantitative determination of formic acid in apple juices by ¹H NMR spectrometry

A quantitative determination method of formic acid in apple juices is proposed by means of the proton nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) technique. Formic acid gives a singlet signal at the 8.2-8.4 ppm interval of the spectrum, and its area is used to determine the concentration of the acid. 1,3,5-Benzenetricarboxylic acid is added to the juice as an internal standard. Since the chemical shift of both species varies with the pH, ascorbic acid is also added to adjust it at 2.74 and to avoid the overlapping of the signals. Recoveries between 95 and 109% are obtained when the standard addition method is applied to the juices of five different cider apple varieties. The coefficient of variation obtained is 3.9% for intra-day repeatability (n = 5), and 4.6% for inter-day repeatability (n = 10). The limit of detection is 1.49 mg/l, calculated from "3S_y/x + intercept". The described method is direct and no previous derivatization is needed.