An Efficient Workflow for Quality Control Marker Screening and Metabolite Discovery in Dietary Herbs by LC-Orbitrap-MS/MS and Chemometric Methods: A Case Study of <i>Chrysanthemum</i> Flowers

oleh: Hanwen Yuan, Qingling Xie, Ling Liang, Jiangyi Luo, Sai Jiang, Caiyun Peng, Wei Wang

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2024-03-01

Deskripsi

LC-MS is widely utilized in identifying and tracing plant-derived food varieties but quality control markers screening and accurate identification remain challenging. The adulteration and confusion of <i>Chrysanthemum</i> flowers highlight the need for robust quality control markers. This study established an efficient workflow by integrating UHPLC-Orbitrap-MS/MS with Compound Discoverer and chemometrics. This workflow enabled the systematic screening of 21 markers from 10,540 molecular features, which effectively discriminated <i>Chrysanthemum</i> flowers of different species and cultivars. The workflow incorporated targeted and untargeted methods by employing diagnostic product ions, fragmentation patterns, mzCloud, mzVault, and in-house databases to identify 206 compounds in the flowers, including 17 screened markers. This approach improved identification accuracy by reducing false positives, eliminating in-source fragmentation interference, and incorporating partial verification utilizing our established compound bank. Practically, this workflow can be instrumental in quality control, geolocation determination, and varietal tracing of <i>Chrysanthemum</i> flowers, offering prospective use in other plant-derived foods.