Metabisotopomics of triacylglycerols from animal origin: A simultaneous metabolomic and isotopic profiling using C INEPT.

In previous works, we developed a C NMR method for analyzing triacylglycerols in olive oil using an adiabatic refocused INEPT sequence. This allowed spectral acquisition to be done in only 8 min with sufficient precision for isotopic measurements. In the present study, we made use of the same methodology to investigate the potential of triacylglycerols as source of biomarkers in animal origin matrices. To this end, egg yolk was taken as a model matrix. We called our profiling approach metabisotopomics since it was simultaneously metabolomic and isotopic profiling. Beside its ability to quantitate several fatty acids, metabisotopomics of triacylglycerols in egg yolk allowed the multivariate classification of samples according to the hen breed, to the farming system and origin. Achieved results confirmed our presumption that C metabisotopomics of triacylglycerols from animal sources is a powerful tool for metabolic studies as well as for food authentication processes.