Metabolic Profiling of Hoodia, Chamomile, Terminalia Species and Evaluation of Commercial Preparations Using Ultrahigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography Quadrupole-Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QToF-MS) profiling was used for the identification of marker compounds and generation of metabolic patterns that could be interrogated using chemometric modeling software. UHPLC-QToF-MS was used to generate comprehensive fingerprints of three botanicals (<i>Hoodia, Terminalia</i>, and chamomile), each having different classes of compounds. Detection of a broad range of ions was carried out in full scan mode in both positive and negative modes over the range <i>m/z</i> 100-1700 using high-resolution mass spectrometry. Multivariate statistical analysis was used to extract relevant chemical information from the data to easily differentiate between <i>Terminalia</i> species, chamomile varieties, and quality control of <i>Hoodia</i> products. Using nontargeted analysis, identification of 37 compounds contributed to the differences between <i>Terminalia</i> species, 26 flavonoids were identified to show the differences between German and Roman chamomile, and 43 pregnane glycosides were identified from <i>Hoodia gordonii</i> samples. The UHPLC-QToF-MS-based chemical fingerprinting with principal component analysis was able to correctly distinguish botanicals and their commercial products. This work can be used as a basis to assure the quality of botanicals and commercial products.