Sensitive and Rapid UHPLC-MS/MS for the Analysis of Tomato Phenolics in Human Biological Samples

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2015-11, Vol.20 (11), p.20409-20425
• Main Authors: Martínez-Huélamo, Miriam, Tulipani, Sara, Jáuregui, Olga, Valderas-Martinez, Palmira, Vallverdú-Queralt, Anna, Estruch, Ramón, Torrado, Xavier, Lamuela-Raventós, Rosa M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acids; Adult; Biologia humana; biosamples; blood; Chromatography; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Food; Food and Nutrition; Human biology; Humans; Life Sciences; Limit of Detection; Lycopersicon esculentum - chemistry; Metabolites; Metabòlits; microbiota; Nutrition; Phenols - chemistry; Phenols - pharmacokinetics; Plant Exudates - chemistry; Plant Exudates - pharmacokinetics; polyphenol metabolites; Polyphenols; Reproducibility of Results; sauce; Tandem Mass Spectrometry; tomato; Tomatoes; Tomàquets; Urine; validation; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules201119702

An UHPLC-MS/MS method for the quantification of tomato phenolic metabolites in human fluids was optimized and validated, and then applied in a pilot dietary intervention study with healthy volunteers. A 5-fold gain in speed (3.5 min of total run); 7-fold increase in MS sensitivity and 2-fold greater efficiency (50% peak width reduction) were observed when comparing the proposed method with the reference-quality HPLC-MS/MS system, whose assay performance has been previously documented. The UHPLC-MS/MS method led to an overall improvement in the limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) for all the phenolic compounds studied. The recoveries ranged between 68% and 100% in urine and 61% and 100% in plasma. The accuracy; intra- and interday precision; and stability met with the acceptance criteria of the AOAC International norms. Due to the improvements in the analytical method; the total phenolic metabolites detected in plasma and urine in the pilot intervention study were 3 times higher than those detected by HPLC-MS/MS. Comparing with traditional methods; which require longer time of analysis; the methodology described is suitable for the analysis of phenolic compounds in a large number of plasma and urine samples in a reduced time frame.