LC–ESI–QTOF–MS, MS/MS Analysis of Glycerophospholipid Species in Three Tunisian Pistacia lentiscus Fruit Populations

Abstract

AbstractThree populations of Pistacia lentiscus fruits were analyzed for their contents, classes and different molecular species of glycerophospholipids (PL) in order to promote their production and marketability. The LC–ESI–TOF–MS and MS/MS were used to accomplish this analysis. Only four classes of PL were detected at different retention times—phosphatidic acid (PA), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylglycerol (PG) and phosphatidylinositol (PI). There was a significant difference in the relative observed abundance of various glycerophospholipid classes. PI was found to be the dominant class in the all provenances of lentisc fruit, followed by the PG class in the KO and RM populations. Within the TB population, the PA class is more abundant than PG and PE. The major molecular specie in the PA class is PA‐C16:0/18:2 followed by PA‐C18:1/18:2; and the minor species were determined to be PA‐C16:0/18:3, and PA‐C18:3/18:2. In the PE class of phospholipids PE‐C18:1/18:1 and PE‐C18:2/18:2 are the major species identified. The phospholipids PG‐C18:2/18:2, PG‐18:2/18:1, PI‐C16:0/18:2 and PI‐C16:0/18:1 are the most abundant species within the PG and PI classes. PG‐C18:1/18:1, PI‐C18:0/18:1 and PI‐C16:0/18:3 are found to be only relatively minor chemical species. In conclusion, it is clear that the predominant molecular species of PL are those containing C16:0, C18;1, C18:2 fatty acids and the minor species are those containing C18:0 and C18:3.