• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.326-333
• /
• 2020

In this work, we developed an analytical method for determining 11 illicit compounds in dietary supplements using high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Eleven target compounds, including those meant for weight loss (7-keto-dihydroepiandrosterone, buformin, metformin, phenformin, salbutamol, and tolbutamide), sexual enhancement (dihydroepiandrosterone), and relaxation (asarone, kavain, magnoflorine, and picamilon) were screened and confirmed in dietary supplements. Method validation was performed by evaluating the selectivity, linearity, limit of quantification (LOQ), accuracy, and precision according to the Association of Official Analytical Chemists guidelines. The linearity was > 0.993 for all analytes. The LOQs were ranged in 2.1-9.9 ㎍/mL (HPLC-DAD) and 0.002-0.008 ㎍/mL (LC-MS/MS). The accuracies (expressed as recovery) were 90.0-106% (HPLC-DAD) and 83.0-114% (LC-MS/MS). The precision (expressed as the relative standard deviation) was below 10% using HPLC and LC-MS/MS. The proposed method can be used for the surveillance of illicit compounds in dietary supplements.

• Mycobiology
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.149-154
• /
• 2013

An ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitor was developed from Aspergillus oryzae N159-1, which was screened from traditional fermented Korean foods. The intracellular concentration of the inhibitor reached its highest level when the fungus was cultured in tryptic soy broth medium at $27^{\circ}C$ for five days. The inhibitor was purified using a series of purification steps involving ultrafiltration, Sephadex G-25 gel permeation chromatography, strong cation exchange solid phase extraction, reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography, and size exclusion chromatography. The final yield of the purification was 1.9%. Results of the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis indicated that the purified ${\alpha}$-glucosidase inhibitor was a tri-peptide, Pro-Phe-Pro, with the molecular weight of 360.1 Da. The IC50 value of the peptide against ${\alpha}$-glucosidase activity was 3.1 mg/mL. Using Lineweaver-Burk plot analysis, the inhibition pattern indicated that the inhibitor acts as a mixed type inhibitor.

• Analytical Science and Technology
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.22-31
• /
• 2023

As the use of e-liquid cigarettes is rapidly increasing worldwide, it multiplies the potential risk undisclosed to the health of non- and smokers. To reduce the hazard, each country has its own set of regulations for controlling e-liquids. In Korea, the narrow definition of tobacco makes it difficult and have been steadily occurring tax evasion exploiting the difference in natural and artificial nicotine. Therefore, it is very important to distinguish source of nicotine for their regulation. To find biochemical discriminant markers, this study established analysis methods based on high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD) and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple Quadrupole mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS) for nicotine enantiomers and tobacco alkaloids targeted using the difference in pathways of nicotine biosynthesis and chemical synthesis. The method was validated by experimenting linearity (R² > 0.999), recovery (80.99-108.41 %), accuracy (94.11-109.73 %) and precision (0.04-8.27 %). Then, the results for discrimination of the nicotine obtained from analysis of 65 commercial e-liquid products available in Korean market was evaluated. The method successfully applied to the e-liquids and one sample labelled 'synthetic nicotine' for tax exemption was found to contain a natural nicotine product. This method can be used to determine whether an e-liquid product uses natural or artificial nicotine and monitor non-taxable e-liquid products. The method is more scientific than the existing one, which relies only on field evidence.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.33 no.11
• /
• pp.3727-3734
• /
• 2012

An analytical method has been developed for the rapid determination of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in human serum samples. The extraction and purification of PFCs from human serum were performed by the modified method of previous report. Ten PFCs were rapidly separated within 3.3 min by C18-monolithic column liquid chromatography (LC) and detected by electrospray ionization (ESI) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) in negative ion mode. The runtime of PFCs on monolithic column LC was up to 4-fold faster than that on conventional column LC. The effect of triethylamine (TEA) to the mobile phase has investigated on the overall MS detection sensitivity of PFCs in ESI ionization. Quantification was performed by LC-MS/MS in multiple-ion reaction monitoring (MRM) mode, using $^{13}C$-labeled internal standards. Method validation was performed to determine recovery, linearity, precision, and limits of quantification, followed by, the analysis of a standard reference material (SRM 1957 from NIST). The overall recoveries ranged between 81.5 and 106.3% with RSDs of 3.4 to 16.2% for the entire procedure. The calibration range extended from 0.33 to 50 $ng\;mL^{-1}$, with a correlation coefficient ($R^2$) greater than 0.995 and the limits of quantification with 0.08 to 0.46 $ng\;mL^{-1}$. This approach can be used for rapid and sensitive quantitative analysis of 10 PFCs in human serum with high performance and accuracy.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.17 no.6
• /
• pp.952-959
• /
• 2007

His-His-Leu (HHL), a tripeptide derived from a Korean soybean paste, is an angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. We report here a method of producing this tripeptide efficiently by expressing tandem multimers of the codons encoding the peptide in E. coli and purifying the HHL after hydrolysis of the peptide multimers. The HHL gene, tandemly multimerized to a 40-mer, was ligated with ubiquitin as a fusion gene (UH40). UH40 was inserted into vector pET29b; the UH40 fusion protein was then produced in E. coli BL21. The recombinant UH40 protein was purified by cation-exchange chromatography with a yield of 17.3mg/l and analyzed by matrixassisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry and protein N-terminal sequencing. Leucine aminopeptidase was used to cleave a 405-Da HHL monomer from the UH40 fusion protein and the peptide was purified using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a C18 HPLC column, with a final yield of 6.2mg/l. The resulting peptide was confirmed to be HHL with the aid of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, glutamine-TOF mass spectrometry, N-terminal sequencing, and measurement of ACE inhibiting activity. These results suggest that our production method is useful for obtaining a large quantity of recombinant HHL for functional antihypertensive peptide studies.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.58-83
• /
• 2022

We developed analytical methods using high performance chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for the simultaneous determination of 80 unapproved compounds in dietary supplements. The target compounds for analysis were unapproved ingredients (e.g., pharmaceuticals) that have potential adverse effects on consumers owing to accidental misuse, overuse, and interaction with other medication in dietary supplement. Two analytical methods were tested to identify the optimal validation results according to AOAC guideline. As a result, limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.14-0.5 ㎍ mL^-1; linearity (r²) was ≥ 0.99; accuracy (expressed as recovery) was 78.9-114%; precision (relative standard deviation) was ≤ 4.28% in the HPLC method. In the LC-MS/MS method, LOQ was 0.01-2 ng mL^-1, linearity (r²) was ≥0.98, accuracy was 71.7-119%; precision was ≤ 12.5%. The developed methods were applied to 51 dietary supplements collected from 2019 to 2021 through MFDS alert system. Based on our previous monitoring study, major compounds were icariin, sibutramine, yohimbine, sildenafil, tadalafil, sennosides (A, B), cascarosides (A, B, C, D), and phenolphthalein. In this study, we re-analyzed samples of detected compounds, and evaluated the statistical difference using Bland-Altman analysis to compare two analytical approaches between HPLC and LC-MS/MS. These results showed a good agreement between two methods that can be used to monitor the unapproved ingredients in dietary supplements. The developed two methods are complementarily suitable for monitoring the adulteration of 80 unapproved compounds in dietary supplements.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• v.16 no.12
• /
• pp.1799-1803
• /
• 2003

The possibility of lycopene affecting egg yolk pigmentation was studied with lycopene diets containing 0, 4, 8, and $12{\mu}g/g$ meal, respectively. The addition of lycopene above $4{\mu}g/g$ meal significantly improved yolk color after four days of supplementation. The transfer of lycopene into egg yolk was confirmed by thin layer chromatography, and high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). The deposition rate of lycopene into egg yolk was approximately 2%, which was quantitatively determined using a HPLC with a UV detector. The result indicates that lycopene is a good candidate for egg yolk pigmentation and for making functional eggs.

• Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.185-192
• /
• 1999

A phenanthrene-degrading bacterium was isolated from an oil-spilled intertidal sediment sample and identified as Sphingomonas sp. KH3-2. The strain degraded polycyclic aromatic compounds such naphthalene, fluorene, biphenyl, and dibenzothiophene. When strain KH3-2 was cultured for 28 days at 25C, a total of 500 ppm of phenanthrene was degrated with a concomitant production of biomass and Folin-Ciocalteau reactive aromatic intermediates. Analysis of intermediates during phenanthrene degradation using high-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry indicated that Sphingomonas sp. KH3-2 primarily degrades phenanthrene to 1-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid (1H2NA) and further metabolizes 1H2NA through the degradation pathway of naphthalene.

• Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.309-315
• /
• 2018

Chlortetracycline (CTC) is one of the most important compounds in antibiotic production, and its distribution has been widely investigated due to health and ecological concerns. This study presents systematic approach to optimize the high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry for analyzing CTC in a multiple reaction monitoring mode ($479{\rightarrow}462m/z$). One-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) test with response surface analysis (RSA) was used as optimization strategy. In OFAT tests, the fragmentor voltage, collision energy, and ratio of acetonitrile in the mobile phase were selected as major factors for RSA. The experimental conditions were determined using a composite in cube design (CCD) to maximize the peak area. As a result, the partial cubic model precisely predicted the peak area response with high statistical significance. In the model, the (solvent composition) and (collision $energy^2$) terms were statistically significant at the 0.1 ${\alpha}$-level, while the two-way interactions of the independent variables were negligible. By analyzing the model equation, the optimum conditions were derived as 114.9 V, 15.7 eV, and 70.9% for the fragmentor voltage, collision energy, and solvent composition, respectively. The RSA, coupled with the CCD, offered a comprehensive understanding of the peak area that responds to changes in experimental conditions.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.79-88
• /
• 2011

Vitis vinifera cv. Koshu is a traditional grape cultivar that has been grown for centuries in Japan. The Koshu grape has pink-colored skin and Koshu wines have slight astringency. We demonstrated for the first time the characterization of hydroxycinnamic acids, flavan-3-ols, and flavonoids in Koshu grape using high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The gross weight of phenolic compounds excluding anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins in Koshu grape at harvest was higher than those in Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Merlot grapes. In addition, hydroxycinnamic acid and monomeric flavonol contents in Koshu grape were also higher than those in the other grape cultivars. Transcription analysis of cinnamic acid 4-hydroxylase, p-coumarate 3-hydroxylase, caffeate methyltransferase, and flavonol synthase genes indicated high accumulation of hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonols in Koshu grape skin compared with the other cultivars. These findings obtained by chemical and molecular approaches partially explained the phenolic characteristics and the peculiar astringency of Koshu grape.