Chromatographic fingerprint application possibilities in food authentication

The aim of the study was to compare the effectiveness of the use of low-peak chromatographic fingerprints for the differentiation of various food products. Three groups of unprocessed products (mushrooms, hazelnuts and tomatoes), food preparations (bread, dried herbs and tomato juice) and alcoholic beverages (vodka and two types of blended whiskey) were examined. A commercial electronic nose based on ultrafast gas chromatography (acquisition time 90 s) with a flame ionization detector was used for the research. Static headspace was used as a green procedure to extract volatile compounds without modifying the food matrix. Individual extraction conditions were used for each product group. Similarities and differences between profiles were analyzed by simple Principal Components Analysis. The similarity rating was determined using the Euclidean distances. Global model was built for recognition chromatographic fingerprints of food samples. The best recognition results were 100% and 89% for tomato juices, spices, separate champignon elements and hazelnuts. On the other hand, the worst recognition results were 56% and 77% for breads and strong alcoholic beverages.

Gas Chromatographic Fingerprint Analysis for the Comparison of Seized Cannabis Samples

Cannabis sativa L. is widely used as recreational illegal drugs. Illicit Cannabis profiling, comparing seized samples, is challenging due to natural Cannabis heterogeneity. The aim of this study was to use GC–FID and GC–MS herbal fingerprints for intra (within)- and inter (between)-location variability evaluation. This study focused on finding an acceptable threshold to link seized samples. Through Pearson correlation-coefficient calculations between intra-location samples, ‘linked’ thresholds were derived using 95% and 99% confidence limits. False negative (FN) and false positive (FP) error rate calculations, aiming at obtaining the lowest possible FP value, were performed for different data pre-treatments. Fingerprint-alignment parameters were optimized using Automated Correlation-Optimized Warping (ACOW) or Design of Experiments (DoE), which presented similar results. Hence, ACOW data, as reference, showed 54% and 65% FP values (95 and 99% confidence, respectively). An additional fourth root normalization pre-treatment provided the best results for both the GC–FID and GC–MS datasets. For GC–FID, which showed the best improved FP error rate, 54 and 65% FP for the reference data decreased to 24 and 32%, respectively, after fourth root transformation. Cross-validation showed FP values similar as the entire calibration set, indicating the representativeness of the thresholds. A noteworthy improvement in discrimination between seized Cannabis samples could be concluded.

Chromatographic Fingerprint: A Modern Scientific Tool for Standardization of Traditional Medicines

Drugs of natural origin play a significant role in the public health care system of any nation. Quality control is a challenging task for natural remedies. Natural products are different from traditional medicines and should be assessed for the quality. Chromatographic fingerprint produces a chromatogram that represents the chemical characteristics of herbal medicines. This strategy can serve as the proper monitoring of the quality and safety of medicinal herbs. Chromatographic fingerprint enables the characterization of complex herbal product with multi-constituents on a systematic manner with a quantitative degree of reliability. Fingerprint of herbal products through chromatographic techniques has been widely acceptable for evaluation of quality.

Mapping of Echinacea-based food supplements on the Romania market and qualitative evaluation of the most commonly used products

The aim of the study was to explore dietary supplements containing Echinacea on the Romanian market and their qualitative characterization. The products available on the market were aggregated in 2018, through an electronic search based on the register of the Romanian Medicine Agency (Agenția Națională a Medicamentului şi a Dispozitivelor Medicale din România – ANMDMR) and the list of dietary supplements registered by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (Institutul Național de Cercetare-Dezvoltare pentru Bioresurse Alimentare – IBA București, Serviciul național pentru plante medicinale, aromatice și produse ale stupului). There are no Echinacea containing medicines registered in Romania. However, there are 58 dietary supplements in the register, 52% of which are mono-components, 29% contain other herbs, plant extract or vitamins, while 19% are registered as tea. The label of 80% of monocomponent products and 76% of multicomponent supplements contains insufficient information: the plant name, its used part and processing methods (grist, extract, quantity) are not clearly identified. Among the listed dietary supplements, the 12 most commonly used formulations in pharmaceutical practice were subjected to phytochemical chromatographic evaluation: TLC and/or HPLC analysis were used. Three of seven monocomponent products showed proper chromatographic fingerprint, by TLC analysis. One monocomponent sample did not have an adequate chromatographic fingerprint. The labelling of multicomponent products was not appropriate. The TLC test suggests that based on the resulting fingerprint they contain E. purpureae herba. However, due to the presence of other components, the TLC does not allow a clear conclusion regarding the exact composition of the products. The developed HPLC method enables quantification of the concentration of caffeic acid, chicoric acid, echinacoside, chlorogenic and caftaric acids mixture in dietary supplements. None of the tested products contained echinacoside, which is a specific component of E. angustifolia and E. pallida root. In our method, the quantification of caftaric acid is approximate, because it partially overlaps the chlorogenic acid, which is a common component of plant samples, but negligible in Echinacea sp. The tested dietary supplements have a caffeic acid content of 20-140 µg/g, a chicoric acid content of 0.19-2.64 mg/g; the mixture of chlorogenic and caftartic acid is about 0.23-2.07 mg/g.

Chemical Fingerprint Analysis for Discovering Markers and Identifying Saussurea involucrata by HPLC Coupled with OPLS-DA

The quality control of Saussurea involucrata has been greatly improved by macroscopic and microscopic identification and chemical profiling described in Chinese Pharmacopoeia since 2005. However, these methods have their own limitations, e.g., their dependence on personal experience and expertise, and it is a huge challenge to identify closely related species that share similar or identical morphological characteristics and chemical profiles. A novel and generally accepted identification strategy is urgently needed as a complement to regulations for protecting the public health interests. In this work, a comprehensive chromatographic fingerprint method was developed and tested on 43 samples from four haplotypes of S. involucrata according to DNA barcoding. Three common patterns consisting of 20, 14, and 7 common peaks were generated by frequency filters of median, upper quartile, and 100%, respectively. Based on two formerly screened patterns, S. involucrata can be effectively identified from its five easily confused snow lotus species, including the most closely related plant (S. orgaadayi) in the orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) models. The model is supported by good R and Q coefficients. In addition, different haplotypes of S. involucrata can be discriminated in the OPLS-DA model using the 20 common peaks. Among them, peaks 9, 11, 16 (zaluzanin C), and 18 (dehydrocostus lactone) have been identified as fingerprint markers of S. involucrata via S-plots and VIP values (>1). Additionally, peaks 19 and 20 were identified as linolenic acid and linoleic acid with anti-inflammatory activity, and they were isolated from the herb for the first time. Collectively, the chromatographic fingerprint of S. involucrata can be an effective and integrated method for the identification of authentic herbs from adulterant species or related plants, and discrimination of its different haplotypes provides an objective and reliable tool for quality control.