Fast and Simple Discriminative Analysis of Anthocyanins-Containing Berries Using LC/MS Spectral Data.

INTRODUCTION

Anthocyanins are potent antioxidant agents that protect against many degenerative diseases; however, they are unstable because they are vulnerable to external stimuli including temperature, pH and light. This vulnerability hinders the quality control of anthocyanin-containing berries using classical high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analytical methodologies based on UV or MS chromatograms.

OBJECTIVE

To develop an alternative approach for the quality assessment and discrimination of anthocyanin-containing berries, we used MS spectral data acquired in a short analytical time rather than UV or MS chromatograms.

METHOD

Mixtures of anthocyanins were separated from other components in a short gradient time (5 min) due to their higher polarity, and the representative MS spectrum was acquired from the MS chromatogram corresponding to the mixture of anthocyanins.

RESULTS

The chemometric data from the representative MS spectra contained reliable information for the identification and relative quantification of anthocyanins in berries with good precision and accuracy.

CONCLUSION

This fast and simple methodology, which consists of a simple sample preparation method and short gradient analysis, could be applied to reliably discriminate the species and geographical origins of different anthocyanin-containing berries. These features make the technique useful for the food industry. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.