Systematic Detection and Identification of Bioactive Ingredients from Citrus aurantium L. var. amara Using HPLC-Q-TOF-MS Combined with a Screening Method

Abstract

Bitter orange, Citrus aurantium L. var. amara (CAVA), is an important crop and its flowers and fruits are widely used in China as a food spice, as well as in traditional Chinese medicine, due to its health-promoting properties. The secondary metabolites that are present in plant-derived foods or medicines are, in part, responsible for the health benefits and desirable flavor profiles. Nevertheless, detailed information about the bioactive ingredients in CAVA is scarce. Therefore, this study was aimed at exploring the phytochemicals of CAVA by high performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-Q-TOF-MS). Here, a systematic screening method combined with HPLC-Q-TOF-MS was presented. This technique was used to systematically screen metabolites, primarily from the complex matrix of CAVA, and to identify these compounds by their exact masses, characteristic fragment ions, and fragmentation behaviors. A total of 295 metabolites were screened by the screening method and 89 phytochemicals were identified in the flowers, fruits, roots, leaves, and branches of CAVA. For the first time, 69 phytochemicals (flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, etc.) were reported from CAVA. The results highlight the importance of CAVA as a source of secondary metabolites in the food, medicine, and nutraceutical industries.

Potential action on the central nervous system of neroli oil extracted from Citrus aurantium

“…As well as previously identified monoterpenes, a study published by the journal of chemistry Melecules, verified through liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry the presence of naringin, hesperetin and nobiletin among the flavonoids that make up bitter orange flowers (Yu et al, 2020).…”

“…aurantium L. var.amara, popularly known as Bitter Orange, became the object of studies because, it has in its chemical composition, flavonoids such as naringin, hesperidin and neohesperidin, flavones, flavonones, polimethoxylates, glycan peptides, coumarins such as meranzin and auraptene, tannic acid, limonoids and alkaloids such as synephrine, the aqueous extract of Zhi-Quiao, immature fruit of C. aurantium, thus presenting possible antidepressant, antioxidant and anxiolytic effect (Wu et al, 2015 ). Studies show that the genus Citrus (Rutaceae), to which C. aurantium belongs, presents a great variety of biological activities, which enables the application of this genus in numerous medicinal purposes (Shen, et al, 2017;Karimi et al, 2012;Yu et al, 2020;Rahnama et al, 2015;Golechha et al, 2011).…”

Bread Fortified with Cooked Purple Potato Flour and Citrus Albedo: An Evaluation of Its Compositional and Sensorial Properties

“…As shown in Figure 3, yellow peaks were attributed to albedo constituents. According to the literature data [64,65] enriched in the free amino acids leucine/isoleucine (8), tyrosine (9), phenylalanine (10), and tryptophan (11) coming from tubers.…”

“…As shown in Figure 3, yellow peaks were attributed to albedo constituents. According to the literature data [64,65], the major components were represented by the flavone C-glucoside vicenin-2 (peak 14), a flavone O-glucoside tentatively identified as apigenin 7-O-rutinoside or 7-O-neohesperidoside (peak 16), three flavanone O-glycosides (peaks 15, 17 and 18) represented by eriocitrin, naringenin and neohesperidin, and 3-hydroxy-3 methyl-glutaryl flavanone O-glycosides such as melitidin (peak 19) and brutiedirin (peak 20). Flavonoids are very common in fruits of the Citrus genus and are very interesting for their wide biological activity [66].…”

Identification of the Trace Components in BopuzongJian and Macleaya cordata Extract Using LC-MS Combined with a Screening Method

“…Many instrumental testing methods have been used in previous studies, including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) [11], liquid chromatographydiode array detection (LC-DAD) [12,13], LC-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) [14,15], capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry, and LC-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) [15]. LC-MS is playing an increasingly important role in identifying impurities because of its high efficiency of separation, low level of sample consumption, excellent sensitivity, strong specificity, and the ability to provide a wealth of structural information [16,17]. However, it is time consuming to manually search for impurity signals from large amounts of raw MS data, and the signals of trace impurities are easily omitted, especially those submerged by background ions [18][19][20] These difficulties are considered as the bottleneck of screening impurities when using LC-MS. A robust component-mining method is needed to rapidly and efficiently screen impurities.…”