Sousa Clara
CBQF-Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina-Laboratório Associado, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Rua Diogo Botelho 1327, 4169-005 Porto, Portugal.
Foods. 2022 Jun 28;11(13):1924. doi: 10.3390/foods11131924.
Natural pigments are a quite relevant group of molecules that are widely distributed in nature, possessing a significant role in our daily lives. Besides their colors, natural pigments are currently recognized as having relevant biological properties associated with health benefits, such as anti-tumor, anti-atherogenicity, anti-aging and anti-inflammatory activities, among others. Some of these compounds are easily associated with specific fruits (such as blueberries with anthocyanins, red pitaya with betalain or tomato with lycopene), vegetables (carrots with carotenoids), plant leaves (chlorophylls in green leaves or carotenoids in yellow and red autumn leaves) and even the muscle tissue of vertebrates (such as myoglobin). Despite being less popular as natural pigment sources, edible plant leaves possess a high variety of chlorophylls, as well as a high variety of carotenoids and anthocyanins. The purpose of this review is to critically analyze the whole workflow employed to identify and quantify the most common natural pigments (anthocyanin, carotenoids and chlorophylls) in edible plant leaves using tandem mass spectrometry. Across the literature there, is a lack of consistency in the methods used to extract and analyze these compounds, and this review aims to surpass this issue. Additionally, mass spectrometry has stood out in the context of metabolomics, currently being a widely employed technique in this field. For the three pigments classes, the following steps will be scrutinized: (i) sample pre-preparation, including the solvents and extraction conditions; (ii) details of the chromatographic separation and mass spectrometry experiments (iii) pigment identification and quantification.
天然色素是一类相当重要的分子，广泛分布于自然界，在我们的日常生活中发挥着重要作用。除了其颜色外，天然色素目前被认为具有与健康益处相关的重要生物学特性，如抗肿瘤、抗动脉粥样硬化、抗衰老和抗炎活性等。其中一些化合物很容易与特定的水果（如含有花青素的蓝莓、含有甜菜碱的红肉火龙果或含有番茄红素的番茄）、蔬菜（含有类胡萝卜素的胡萝卜）、植物叶子（绿叶中的叶绿素或秋季黄叶和红叶中的类胡萝卜素）甚至脊椎动物的肌肉组织（如肌红蛋白）联系起来。尽管作为天然色素来源不太受欢迎，但可食用植物叶子含有多种叶绿素，以及多种类胡萝卜素和花青素。本综述的目的是批判性地分析使用串联质谱法鉴定和定量可食用植物叶子中最常见的天然色素（花青素、类胡萝卜素和叶绿素）所采用的整个工作流程。在现有文献中，用于提取和分析这些化合物的方法缺乏一致性，本综述旨在解决这一问题。此外，质谱在代谢组学领域中脱颖而出，目前是该领域广泛应用的技术。对于这三类色素，将详细审查以下步骤：（i）样品预处理，包括溶剂和提取条件；（ii）色谱分离和质谱实验的细节；（iii）色素的鉴定和定量。
