title: Differentiating organic from conventional peppermints using chromatographic and flow injection mass spectrometric (FIMS) fingerprints.
abstract: High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and flow injection mass spectrometric (FIMS) fingerprinting techniques were tested for their potential in differentiating organic and conventional peppermint samples. Ten organic and ten conventional peppermint samples were examined using HPLC-UV and FIMS methods. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that both HPLC and FIMS fingerprints could determine the difference in the commercial organic and conventional peppermints. FIMS fingerprinting provided a rapid test to differentiate organic and conventional peppermints in 1 min of analysis and has potential for high-throughput applications. On the other hand, HPLC fingerprints provide more information about the chemical composition of the samples, but take a longer time to differentiate organic and conventional peppermint samples.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food and Nutraceutical Science, Key Laboratory of Urban Agriculture (South), School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Boyan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Yingjian
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.forename: Pei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Haiming
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Denys
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Charles
authors.forename: Liangli Lucy
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods; D017022:Flow Injection Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D036142:Mentha piperita / Q000737:chemistry*; D058871:Organic Agriculture; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D013997:Time Factors