Advanced mass spectrometric approaches for the determination of food quality and development of new methodologies for enrichment of nutraceuticals in functional foods

Abstract

The research works presented in this Ph.D. thesis are based on the nutraceuticals and functional foods research. The first part of the thesis deals with three main topics: 1. Structural characterization of new HMG-flavonoids in bergamot juice Two unknown 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl flavanone glycosides were identified and characterized by the combination of liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry experiments. 2. Preparation of extracts enriched in HMG-flavonoids A novel food-grade procedure to obtain HMG-flavonoids enriched extracts with an high purity grade was developed. The purification procedure was tested on different citrus fruits, i.e. bergamot, sour orange and chinotto. 3. Development of a new procedure for the enrichment of foodstuffs in hydroxytyrosol New functional foods are presented. They were obtained by the enrichment of foodstuffs generally used in daily diet, i.e. flour, whole wheat flour and sugar, with the nutraceutical compound hydroxytyrosol. The second part concerns the development of advanced mass spectrometric analytical procedure for quality assessment of foods, through the quantification of nutraceutical compounds and the determination of target quality molecules. The works presented in this field are the following: 1. Determination of Hydroxytyrosol and Tyrosol derivatives compounds in Extra Virgin olive oil by Microwave Hydrolysis and LC-MS/MS analysis A novel method to determine the absolute amount of hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol derivatives in EVOO samples was developed. The procedure consists in a simple and fast microwave assisted acidic hydrolysis reaction, combined with the use of liquid chromatography- tandem mass spectrometry analysis. 2. Absolute Evaluation of Hydroxytyrosol in Extra Virgin Olive Oil by Paper Sray Tandem Mass Spectrometry A novel and fast methodology for the evaluation of the absolute amount of Hydroxytyrosol in extra virgin olive oil was set up. The method is based on the exploitation of paper spray ionization (PS) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). 3. Discriminant Analysis of Vegetables Oils by Paper Spray Mass Spectrometry and Statistical Approach An innovative approach for the characterization of triacylglycerols profile of different vegetable oils was developed. The method employs the paper spray ionization technique that in combination with chemometric analysis has allowed to discriminate the extra virgin olive oil from the others vegetable oils commonly used as adulterants. 4. Quantitative Evaluation of Caffeine in beverages and drugs by Paper spray tandem Mass Spectrometry A simple and fast method for the quantification of caffeine in beverages and drugs is presented. Also this analytical procedure is based on the use of paper spray tandem mass spectrometry.