Quality control evaluation of nutraceutical products from Ginkgo biloba using liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry

• Use of Orbitrap for the determination of polyphenols in ginkgo biloba products.
• Determination of several kinds of polyphenols in less than 16 min.
• Quality control of these products determining terpenoids and flavonol glycosides.
• Retrospective analysis to identify non-desirable compounds as ginkgolic acids.

Analysis of 11 commercial nutraceutical products obtained from ginkgo has been performed using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to single-stage Orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Orbitrap-MS). The main phytochemicals present in these samples were detected and quantified, utilizing a database containing 65 compounds. Phytochemicals were extracted using a mixture of an aqueous solution of methanol:water (80:20, v/v) in two sequential solid-liquid extractions. Adequate validation parameters were obtained. The validated compounds exhibited suitable linearity with determination coefficients (R2) higher than 0.99, and intra and inter-day precision were lower than 17 and 22%, respectively. Limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) were calculated, ranging from 2 to 10 μg L−1, except for myricetin (LOD, 150 μg L−1 and LOQ, 300 μg L−1). Results indicate that the amount of terpenoids greatly varies among samples, ranging from 1133 (C7) to 12706 mg kg−1 (C11). This emphasizes the importance of improve quality control in ginkgo-based products. Moreover, retrospective analysis allowed the detection of some undesirable substances as ginkgolic acid in the samples evaluated.

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