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.
Noji
Natsumi
N
Graduate School of Agriculture, Meiji University, DRI, RIKEN, PSC, RIKEN, Japan.
Nakamura
Takemichi
T
Kitahata
Nobutaka
N
Taguchi
Katsuhiko
K
Kudo
Toshiaki
T
Yoshida
Shigeo
S
Tsujimoto
Masafumi
M
Sugiyama
Tamizi
T
Asami
Tadao
T
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