文摘
In some fruits, the loss of astringency has been attributed to the insolubilization of recombinated tannins, formed by reaction with acetaldehyde. This route has been investigated by on-line coupling of liquid chromatography with ion spray mass spectrometry (LC--ISP-MS). The results reported herein indicate that LC--ISP-MS can be successfully applied to tannin polymers and is very helpful in their identification. It also allows direct monitoring of the progress of polymerisation reactions. The mechanism of the acetaldehyde-induced polymerisation of flavan-3-ols has thus been demonstrated.