title: Advances in the analysis of iminocyclitols: Methods, sources and bioavailability.
abstract: Iminocyclitols are chemically and metabolically stable, naturally occurring sugar mimetics. Their biological activities make them interesting and extremely promising as both drug leads and functional food ingredients. The first iminocyclitols were discovered using preparative isolation and purification methods followed by chemical characterization using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. In addition to this classical approach, gas and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry are increasingly used; they are highly sensitive techniques capable of detecting minute amounts of analytes in a broad spectrum of sources after only minimal sample preparation. These techniques have been applied to identify new iminocyclitols in plants, microorganisms and synthetic mixtures. The separation of iminocyclitol mixtures by chromatography is particularly difficult however, as the most commonly used matrices have very low selectivity for these highly hydrophilic structurally similar molecules. This review critically summarizes recent advances in the analysis of iminocyclitols from plant sources and findings regarding their quantification in dietary supplements and foodstuffs, as well as in biological fluids and organs, from bioavailability studies.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Química Analítica, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1-11, 08028 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: samezqueta@ub.edu.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amézqueta
authors.affiliation: Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC), Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: joseplluis.torres@iqac.csic.es.
authors.forename: Josep Lluís
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Torres
mesh_terms: D001682:Biological Availability; D001688:Biological Products / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D002849:Chromatography, Gas / Q000379:methods*; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D006801:Humans; D050111:Imino Sugars / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D015394:Molecular Structure; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products; D050111:Imino Sugars
keywords: Analysis; Bioavailability; Deoxynojirimycin; Fagomine; Iminocyclitols; Iminosugars