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Chromatographic Fingerprinting by Template Matching for Data Collected by Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography
Published on: September 2, 2020
UHPLC-QTOF-HRMS metabolomics insight on the origin and processing authentication of thyme by comprehensive
Araceli Rivera-Pérez1, Pascual García-Pérez2, Roberto Romero-González3
1Research Group "Analytical Chemistry of Contaminants", Department of Chemistry and Physics, Research Centre for Mediterranean Intensive Agrosystems and Agrifood Biotechnology (CIAIMBITAL), Agrifood Campus of International Excellence (ceiA3), University of Almeria, E-04120 Almeria, Spain; Department for Sustainable Food Process - DiSTAS, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Via Emilia Parmense 84, 29122 Piacenza, Italy.
Abstract:
The metabolic composition of thyme, one of the most used aromatic herbs, is influenced by environmental and post-harvest processing factors, presenting the possibility of exploiting thyme fingerprint to assess its authenticity. In this study, a comprehensive UHPLC-QTOF-HRMS fingerprinting approach was applied with a dual objective: (1) tracing thyme from three regions of production (Spain, Morocco, and Poland) and (2) evaluating the metabolic differences in response to processing, considering sterilized thyme samples. Multivariate statistics reveal 37 and 33 key origin and processing differentiation compounds, respectively. The findings highlighted the remarkable "terroir" influence on thyme fingerprint, noticing flavonoids, amino acids, and peptides among the most discriminant chemical classes. Thyme sterilization led to an overall metabolite enrichment, most likely due to the facilitated compound accessibility as a result of processing. The findings provide a comprehensive metabolomics insight into the origin and processing effect on thyme composition for product traceability and quality assessment.
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