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Updated: Jan 10, 2026
Untargeted Metabolomics from Biological Sources Using Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry UPLC-HRMS
Published on: May 20, 2013
Untargeted metabolomic analysis of date seed oil (Phoenix dactylifera L.) using UHPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS - evaluation of the
Said El Harkaoui1,2,3, Katharina N'Diaye1, Zoubida Charrouf4
1Max Rubner-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Nutrition and Food, Department for Safety and Quality of Cereals, Schützenberg 12, 32756 Detmold, Germany.
Abstract:
The chemical composition of edible oils is influenced by geographical origin, making traceability essential for ensuring authenticity and quality, particularly for unconventional (edible) oils like date seed oil (DSO). For economic, food safety, and research purposes, this study aimed to characterize the metabolomic profile of DSO and assess the impact of Moroccan origin to identify key chemical markers linked to regional differences. An untargeted metabolomic approach using UHPLC-QTOF-MS was applied to DSO samples from three Moroccan palm groves: Allougoum, Alnif, and Errachidia. PCA revealed modest clustering for Allougoum samples, while OPLS-DA enabled selection of 50 features contributing to differentiation. Among these, 25 metabolites were tentatively identified as geographical markers with three, n-(3-oxohexanoyl) homoserine lactone, indole-3-carboxaldehyde, and vanillin, confirmed using authentic standards. Hydroxy fatty acids were the most represented class, with four compounds tentatively annotated. This study provides the first comprehensive metabolomic profile of DSO and highlights potential markers for origin differentiation.
