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Hydrophilic interaction ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry for highly rapid and sensitive analysis of underivatized amino acids in functional foods

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Abstract

This work presented a new analytical methodology based on hydrophilic interaction ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry in multiple-reaction monitoring mode for analysis of 24 underivatized free amino acids (FAAs) in functional foods. The proposed method was first reported and validated by assessing the matrix effects, linearity, limit of detections and limit of quantifications, precision, repeatability, stability and recovery of all target compounds, and it was used to determine the nutritional substances of FAAs in ginkgo seeds and further elucidate the nutritional value of this functional food. The result showed that ginkgo seed turned out to be a good source of FAAs with high levels of several essential FAAs and to have a good nutritional value. Furthermore, the principal component analysis was performed to classify the ginkgo seed samples on the basis of 24 FAAs. As a result, the samples could be mainly clustered into three groups, which were similar to areas classification. Overall, the presented method would be useful for the investigation of amino acids in edible plants and agricultural products.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by A Project Funded by the National Science and Technology Support Program of China (2011BAI04B03), the 2009’ Program for New Century Excellent Talents by the Ministry of Education (NCET-09-0163), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (ysxk-2010), and the Construction Project for Jiangsu Engineering Center of Innovative Drug from Blood-conditioning TCM Formulae. We are grateful to Mr. Wei Jiang (Taixing, Jiangsu province, China) for collecting samples. We are also pleased to thank Waters China Ltd. for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory for High Technology of TCM formulae Research, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210046, China

    Guisheng Zhou, Hanqing Pang, Yuping Tang, Xin Yao, Xuan Mo, Shaoqing Zhu, Sheng Guo, Dawei Qian, Yefei Qian, Shulan Su, Li Zhang & Jin-ao Duan

  2. Department of Analysis of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, 210046, China

    Li Zhang

  3. Jiangsu Shenlong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Yancheng, 224200, China

    Chun Jin & Yong Qin

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  1. Guisheng Zhou
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  2. Hanqing Pang
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  3. Yuping Tang
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  4. Xin Yao
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  5. Xuan Mo
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  11. Li Zhang
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  12. Chun Jin
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  13. Yong Qin
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  14. Jin-ao Duan
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Correspondence to Yuping Tang or Jin-ao Duan.

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Zhou, G., Pang, H., Tang, Y. et al. Hydrophilic interaction ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple-quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry for highly rapid and sensitive analysis of underivatized amino acids in functional foods. Amino Acids 44, 1293–1305 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-013-1463-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-013-1463-7

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