α-Dicarbonyls (α-DCs)
are key reactive Maillard intermediates
with structural diversity and are widely found in foods and in vivo,
but little is known regarding the complete molecular profiles of these
potentially harmful electrophiles. Herein, we reported a novel isotope-coding
derivatization (ICD) strategy for the broad-spectrum, quantitative
profiling of (non)target α-DC species in natural foodstuffs.
It utilized differential isotope labeling (DIOL) with a reagent pair o-phenylenediamine (OPD)/OPD-d
4 (deuterated) to form stable quinoxalines for class-specific fragmentation-dependent
acquisition using liquid chromatography–hybrid quadrupole linear
ion trap mass spectrometry (LC-QqLIT). A combination of facile one-pot
quantitative labeling and convenient cleanup protocol afforded satisfactory
sensitivity, linearity, accuracy (81–116%), and process recovery
(86–109% with RSDs < 10%) by matrix-matched ICD-internal
standard calibration, without significant matrix interference (−9
to 5%), isotopic effect (<0.5%), and cocktail effect. A more generic
DIOL-based LC-QqLIT algorithm integrated double precursor ion and
neutral loss scan to trigger enhanced product ions with the unique
isobaric doublet tags (4 Da shift), enabling simultaneous screening
and relative quantitation of nontarget α-DC analogues in a single
analysis. This study has widened the vision on complex α-DC
profiles in traditional botanicals, which revealed a wide occurrence
of α-DCs in such processed sugar-rich products, yet their abundance
varied greatly among different samples.