High-throughput analysis of anthocyanins in horticultural crops using probe electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (PESI/MS/MS)

農作物に含まれる成分を簡便・迅速に分析する技術を確立 --煩雑な抽出や分離操作が不要、わずか3分間で81種類のアントシアニンを分析可能--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-03-30.Plant secondary metabolites exhibit various horticultural traits. Simple and rapid analysis methods for evaluating these metabolites are in demand in breeding and consumer markets dealing with horticultural crops. We applied probe electrospray ionization (PESI) to evaluate secondary metabolite levels in horticultural crops. PESI does not require pre-treatment and separation of samples, which makes it suitable for high-throughput analysis. In this study, we targeted anthocyanins, one of the primary pigments in horticultural crops. Eighty-one anthocyanins were detected in approximately 3 minutes in the selected reaction-monitoring mode. Tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) could adequately distinguish between the fragments of anthocyanins and flavonols. Probe sampling, an intuitive method of sticking a probe directly to the sample, could detect anthocyanins qualitatively on a micro-area scale, such as achenes and receptacles in strawberry fruit. Our results suggest that PESI/MS/MS can be a powerful tool to characterize the profile of anthocyanins and compare their content among cultivars