Procyanidins are classified under the class of flavan-3-ols which are the common components of plant-derived food products.

Procyanidin C1 can be used as an analytical reference standard for the determination of procyanidin C1 in cocoa-based products by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole Orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS/MS), wild apple by UHPLC equipped with diode array detection (DAD) and high resolution multistage mass spectrometry (HRMS), food materials and biological samples by HPLC combined with fluorescence detector (FLD) as well as DADL, lentil seed coats by HPLC-MS with ultraviolet (UV) detection, grape seeds by high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC).