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A metabolite fingerprinting for the characterization of commercial botanical dietary supplements

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Abstract

Phytopharmaceuticals, phytomedicines and botanical dietary supplements are products of wide interest considering the increase of their use. The development of fast and effective analytical methods able to give a fingerprinting of the product, on the basis of the plant extracts declared to be contained in it, is surely of high interest. In a previous investigation electrospray mass spectrometry was proved to be effective for the characterization of plant extracts. The direct infusion of the samples and the analyses in both positive and negative ion mode lead to a clear differentiation of the different samples. To verify if the same approach can be effective also for mixtures of plant extracts, five different commercial dietary supplements [Sedivitax gocce (1), Finocarbo Plus opercoli (2), Sollievo Bio tavolette (3), MiniMas opercoli (4) and Ruscoven gocce (5), all products from Aboca S.p.A., Sansepolcro, Italy] were analyzed by ESI. In order to evaluate possible changes in the metabolic profile with respect to different years of production, ten different batches of the commercial dietary supplements were considered. The mass spectral data were evaluated by multivariate analysis and the obtained results suggest that the method allows a satisfactory and rapid characterization of complex mixtures of commercial dietary supplements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Area, Aboca S.p.A. Società Agricola, Loc. Aboca, Sansepolcro, AR, Italy

    Luisa Mattoli, Francesca Cangi, Caterina Ghiara, Michela Burico, Anna Maidecchi & Erika Bianchi

  2. Department of Pharmacology and Anesthesiology, University of Padova, Largo Meneghetti 2, Padova, Italy

    Eugenio Ragazzi

  3. CNR-ISTM, Corso Stati Uniti 4, Padova, Italy

    Lisa Bellotto, Roberta Seraglia & Pietro Traldi

Authors
  1. Luisa Mattoli
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  2. Francesca Cangi
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  3. Caterina Ghiara
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  4. Michela Burico
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  5. Anna Maidecchi
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  6. Erika Bianchi
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  7. Eugenio Ragazzi
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  8. Lisa Bellotto
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  9. Roberta Seraglia
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  10. Pietro Traldi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pietro Traldi.

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Mattoli, L., Cangi, F., Ghiara, C. et al. A metabolite fingerprinting for the characterization of commercial botanical dietary supplements. Metabolomics 7, 437–445 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-010-0268-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-010-0268-x

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