Research Group "Analytical Chemistry of Contaminants", Department of Chemistry and Physics, Research Centre for Mediterranean Intensive Agrosystems and Agrifood Biotechnology (CIAIMBITAL), Agrifood Campus of International Excellence (ceiA3), University of Almeria, E-04120 Almeria, Spain.
Food Chem. 2023 Sep 15;420:136156. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.136156. Epub 2023 Apr 13.
Thyme is a culinary herb highly susceptible to increasing mislabeling occurring in the spice industry. In this study, proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H NMR) combined with multivariate statistics was successfully applied with two authenticity purposes: (1) tracing thyme metabolic differences among three relevant geographical regions (Morocco, Spain, and Poland), and (2) assessing the influence of sterilization processing on the metabolic fingerprint. Multivariate data analysis provided six and seven key geographical and processing markers, respectively, including thymol, organic acids, chlorogenic acid, and some carbohydrates (e.g., sucrose). Additionally, for the first time, a mid-level data fusion approach was tested for thyme authenticity combining three complementary and synergic analytical platforms: gas and liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry, and H NMR spectroscopy, providing a comprehensive metabolomics insight into the origin and processing effects on thyme fingerprinting, and opening the path to new metabolomics approaches for quality control in the spice industry.
百里香是一种烹饪香草，非常容易出现标签混淆的情况，这种现象在香料行业尤为突出。在这项研究中，质子核磁共振波谱（1H NMR）结合多元统计分析成功应用于两个目的：（1）追踪三种相关地理区域（摩洛哥、西班牙和波兰）百里香代谢的差异；（2）评估灭菌处理对代谢指纹图谱的影响。多元数据分析分别提供了六个和七个关键的地理和加工标记物，包括百里香酚、有机酸、绿原酸和一些碳水化合物（如蔗糖）。此外，这还是首次采用一种中级数据融合方法来验证百里香的真实性，该方法结合了三种互补和协同的分析平台：气相和液相色谱与高分辨率质谱以及 1H NMR 光谱，为百里香指纹图谱的起源和加工效果提供了全面的代谢组学见解，并为香料行业的质量控制开辟了新的代谢组学方法的道路。
