Direct quantitative analysis of amino acids in fermented beverage of plant extract using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

A method was established for underivatized amino acid determination in fermented beverage of plant extract. Samples were diluted with methanol for five times, extracted by ultrasonic vibration for 30 min, and high-speed centrifuged for 15 min at 10,000 r/min. The supernatant was separated and detected by, high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The chromatographic column was Venusil ASB C18 (250 mm x 4.6 mm, 5 µm). The elution was performed at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min using the mobile phases of methanol-acetic acid-water mixture. The MS detector was set as follows: ion source voltage 3 kV, ion source temperature 150 t, solvent temperature 350 t, gas flow rate 800 L/h. The collision gas was argon with a pressure of 0.17 Pa. The quantitation analysis was carried out with peak area in extracted ion chromatograms. Good linearities were acquired in the range of 0.5-200 µmol/L (r2 > 0.99) for the amino acids. The recoveries were between 86% and 110%. There were 16 amino acids in the fermented beverage of plant extract quantitatively analyzed. The method is simple, rapid, accurate and reliable in quantitative analysis of amino acid samples in the fields of pharmaceutical, food and natural products.