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. 2020 Nov;31(6):801-808.
doi: 10.1002/pca.2944. Epub 2020 Apr 27.

Rapid authentication of agarwood by using liquid extraction surface analysis mass spectrometry (LESA-MS)

Yanqiao Xie  1 , Linnan Li  1 , Yilin Chen  1 , Yuangui Yang  1 , Hong Xu  1   2 , Zhengtao Wang  1   2 , Li Yang  1   2
Affiliations

Rapid authentication of agarwood by using liquid extraction surface analysis mass spectrometry (LESA-MS)

Yanqiao Xie et al. Phytochem Anal. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Introduction: Agarwood is a highly valuable fragrant resinous wood which is widely used as traditional Chinese medicines, perfumes, incense and decorations. Due to its high economic value and excessive demand, this leads to a rising price and proliferation of fake commodities. Thus, strict authenticity identification and quality evaluation of agarwood are of great significance.

Objective: To establish a simple, rapid and non-destructive technique for identifying the authenticity of agarwood.

Methods: Liquid extraction surface analysis mass spectrometry (LESA-MS) was firstly proposed to identify the authenticity of 62 agarwood samples without sample preparation. In addition, multivariate statistical models and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) method were used to analyse and verify the results of LESA-MS.

Results: Representative compounds of agarwood were detected by LESA-MS. A characteristic 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone compound (m/z 319.1) was treated as a key chemical marker to identify agarwood and its counterfeits rapidly. Several other chromones ions were identified and used as additional evidence for authentic samples. A total of 62 samples were visually discriminated as two groups by principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal projection to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), and the specific characteristic marker was highlighted. Moreover, the qualitative results of the conventional TLC method were in agreement with the LESA-MS approach.

Conclusion: The proposed LESA-MS method was successfully applied in the direct qualitative analysis of agarwood from different sources. This study indicated great feasibility and practicality of LESA-MS in the rapid identification of agarwood, and provided a non-destructive and meaningful preliminary screening tool for the agarwood industry.

Keywords: 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromones; agarwood; authentication; liquid extraction surface analysis mass spectrometry.

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References

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