Simple and sensitive method for pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) analysis in various foods using liquid chromatography/electrospray-ionization tandem mass spectrometry.
Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) is believed to be an important factor for mammalian growth and development and has, therefore, been declared a vitamin by some researchers. However, this issue remains controversial, and from a nutritional viewpoint, accurate determination of PQQ levels in a variety of foods is very important. Here, we describe a simple, highly sensitive, and highly selective method for quantitative analysis of PQQ. Liquid foods or aqueous extracts of solid foods were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) combined with electrospray-ionization (ESI) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). (15)N-labeled PQQ was added to the samples as an internal standard. Quantitative analyses of PQQ were performed by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) with LC/MS/MS. Free PQQ was detected in almost all food samples in the range 0.19-7.02 ng per g fresh weight (for solid foods) or per mL (liquid foods). This method will enable the rapid and simple determination of PQQ levels in many samples.
Graduate School of Agriculture, Meiji University, DRI, RIKEN, PSC, RIKEN, Japan.
Natsumi
N
Noji
Takemichi
T
Nakamura
Nobutaka
N
Kitahata
Katsuhiko
K
Taguchi
Toshiaki
T
Kudo
Shigeo
S
Yoshida
Masafumi
M
Tsujimoto
Tamizi
T
Sugiyama
Tadao
T
Asami
D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D045542:PQQ Cofactor / Q000032:analysis*; D010945:Plants, Edible / Q000737:chemistry; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization
D045542:PQQ Cofactor