Evaluation of the quality of herbal teas by DART/TOF‐MS

Abstract

The paper focuses on the optimization, settings and validation of direct analysis in real time coupled with time-of-flight detector when used for the evaluation of the quality of selected herbal teas (fennel, chamomile, nettle, linden, peppermint, thyme, lemon balm, marigold, sage, rose hip and St. John's wort). The ionization mode, the optimal ionization temperature and the type of solvent for sample extraction were optimized. The characteristic compounds of the analysed herbal teas (glycosides, flavonoids and phenolic and terpenic substances, such as chamazulene, anethole, menthol, thymol, salviol and hypericin) were detected. The obtained mass spectra were evaluated by multidimensional chemometric methods, such as cluster analysis, linear discriminate analysis and principal component analysis. The chemometric methods showed that the single variety herbal teas were grouped according to their taxonomic affiliation. The developed method is suitable for quick identification of herbs and can be potentially used for assessing the quality and authenticity of herbal teas. Direct analysis in real time/time-of-flight-MS is also suitable for the evaluation of selected substances contained in the mentioned herbs and herbal products. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Chemical profiling of Honghua Xiaoyao tablet and simultaneous determination of its quality markers by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry combined with chemometrics methods

“…Organic acids were originated from herbal medicines of DG, BZ, ZYCH, BH, and BS, which could play an indispensable role in exhibiting anti‐oxidation and anti‐platelet aggregation [44,45]. A total of seven organic acids, including citric acid (Cpd 3), gallic acid (Cpd 4), PA (Cpd 5), neochlorogenic acid (Cpd 6), chlorogenic acid (Cpd 8), cryptochlorogenic acid (Cpd 9), and ferulic acid (Cpd 14) have been tentatively assigned by Unifi platform and further confirmed by their corresponding reference compounds and literatures [25,27,41,42,46–48]. The neutral losses of caffeoyl group (162 Da), quinic acid unit (192 Da), CO 2 (44 Da), and the ester bond hydrolysis were observed for the caffeoylquinic acids.…”

Recent applications of high resolution mass spectrometry for the characterization of plant natural products

“…Several families of secondary metabolites have been studied by DART-HRMS, including phenolic compounds, alkaloids, saccharides and iridoid glycosides. Recent works show the great potential and efficacy of DART-HRMS for rapid screening and bio-distribution studies of compounds in different plan tissues [91,92], fingerprint studies of plan species [93][94][95], as well as for quality control evaluation of herbal products, such as herbal teas [96] and cannabis derivatives [97].…”

Production stages, microbiological risk and benefits on health of herbal teas

“…It grows in Europe, North America, China, and as well as in Northern Turkey [10]. This plant contains various types of flavonoids (quercetin, isoquercitrin, astragalin, hyperoside, rutin, tyloside, quercetin-3,7-O-α-L-diramnoside, camphorol-3,7-O-α-L-diramnoside), condensed tannins (procyanidin B2), essential oils (linalool, geraniol, geranyl acetate, farnesol, farnesilacetate, 1,8-cineol, 2-phenyl alcohol, phenyl-ethyl benzoate, alkanes), mucilages (uronic acids), phenolic acids (caffeic acid, p-coumaric acid, chlorogenic acid) and amino acids in its chemical structure [11].…”