Determination of L-citrulline in watermelon by high performance liquid chromatography with PITC precolumn derivation

A method of RP-HPLC with phenylisothiocyanate (PITC) precolumn derivatization was established for the determination of L-citrulline in watermelon. The calibration curves of L-citrulline were linear over the range of 4.26²13.2μg/mL (R=0.9998) and the recovery rate was 98.1%. The content ranges of L-citrulline in watermelon were 1.13².71mg/g. The detection limit of the method was 1.1μg/mL. The method descried in this paper was fast, sensitive and reliable and it was most suitable for quantitative determination of L-citrulline in watermelon.