Detection of Novel Cytotoxic Imidazole Alkaloids in Tomato Products by LC-MS/MS.

Imidazole alkaloids represent a rather small group of alkaloids and are assumed not to be of significance to the human food chain so far. In this study, novel imidazole alkaloids occurring in tomato products were synthesized and structurally characterized by nuclear-magnetic-resonance spectroscopy and high-resolution mass spectrometry. These alkaloids are amides of either histidinol or histamine and short-chain fatty acids and could be quantitated in all of the 28 analyzed tomato products using a newly developed and validated LC-MS/MS-based method. Levels ranged from approximately 5 μg/kg to almost 3 mg/kg in the analyzed tomato products, and N-caprylhistidinol and its putative isomer were shown to occur in the highest amounts. These imidazole alkaloids are thus regularly ingested in considerable amounts as part of the human diet. In the course of evaluating their effects on the viability of HT-29 cells, all compounds were shown to significantly reduce cell viability starting at concentrations of 100 μM.