Abstract
In this work, an innovative and fast analytical method for the quantification of soyasaponins I and βg in lentils has been developed. Samples were extracted using 70 % aqueous ethanol at room temperature and then injected into a high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry system. The correlation coefficients of calibration curves of the analyzed compounds were ≥0.9997. The recoveries obtained by spiking the lentil samples with a standard mixture of soyasaponins I and βg at 50 and 100 mg l−1 were in the range of 96–101 and 98–103 %, respectively. The validated method was applied to the analysis of 30 lentil samples from central Italy. Soyasaponins I and βg were present in these lentils in concentrations that ranged from 54 to 226 mg kg−1 and from 436 to 1,272 mg kg−1, respectively. Our data indicated that lentils cultivated in fields at intermediate altitudes (1,142–1,387 m) showed the highest levels of soyasaponins, a finding confirmed by principal component analysis.
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Abbreviations
- HPLC-MS/MS:
-
High-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry
- SPE:
-
Solid-phase extraction
- UV:
-
Ultraviolet
- ESI:
-
Electrospray ionization
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the farmers and producers of lentils that kindly provided the samples and to the Italian Ministry of Research (project PRIN 2009W2MZ88) for the economic support. We would like to thank Sheila Beatty for editing the English usage of the manuscript.
Conflict of Interest
Pilar Vila Donat declares that she has no conflict of interest. Giovanni Caprioli declares that he has no conflict of interest. Paolo Conti declares that he has no conflict of interest. Filippo Maggi declares that he has no conflict of interest. Massimo Ricciutelli declares that he has no conflict of interest. Elisabetta Torregiani declares that she has no conflict of interest. Sauro Vittori declares that he has no conflict of interest. Gianni Sagratini declares that he has no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.
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Pilar Vila Donat and Giovanni Caprioli equally contributed to this work.
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Donat, P.V., Caprioli, G., Conti, P. et al. Rapid Quantification of Soyasaponins I and βg in Italian Lentils by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)–Tandem Mass Spectrometry (MS/MS). Food Anal. Methods 7, 1024–1031 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-013-9708-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-013-9708-3