Organic acids in forest litters play important role in forests and forest soils. Based on the fresh litter materials of Fraxinus mandshurica and Larix olgensis forest in northeast China, a capillary gas chromatography procedure was established to determine organic acids in forest litters. Organic acids in forest litter were lixiviated and derived into corresponding esters with 7∶100 (v:v) H 2SO 4∶CH 3OH at 60℃, extracted in CHCl 3 and analyzed by capillary gas chromatography (GC) system. It resulted that, the method reported in this paper to separate, identify and determine organic acids in forest litter by GC was reliable and easy to operate. The disposal of sample was convenient, and the esterification with CH 3OH occurred while extracting organic acids with the same reagent, so volatilization loss of low-molecular-weight organic acids and oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids were avoided in course of condensation and esterification at high temperature when the conventional method to determine organic acids was used. Good selectivity was obtained, low-molecular-weight organic acids and high fatty acids could be determined simultaneously and accurately. Recovery of thirteen organic acids detected by adding standard samples ranged from 84.66% to 97.45% with relative standard deviation from 1.53% to 8.54%, and lowest detection limit of different organic acids was in range of 0.39 to 6.46 ng. The method could be used to determine organic acids in forest litters with satisfactory results.
