Rapid quantitation of avenanthramides in oat-containing products by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (HPLC-TQMS)

- Avenanthramides (AVNs) are nitrogen-containing phenolic compounds produced in oat.
- A rapid and novel LC-MS/MS method for AVNs was developed and validated.
- Mass spectroscopic fragmentation patterns of AVNs were investigated.
- Hot cereal (HC) had the highest level of AVNs among six oat-containing products.
- Growing location had stronger effect on AVN composition than oat variety.

Avenanthramides (AVNs) are a family of nitrogen-containing phenolic compounds produced in oat; AVN 2c, 2p, and 2f are the three major members. An LC-MS/MS method was developed, with the limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) being, respectively, 0.29 ng/mL and 1.96 ng/mL for AVN 2c, 0.24 ng/mL and 0.60 ng/mL for AVE 2p, and 0.42 ng/mL and 2.2 ng/mL for AVN 2f. The method was validated in oat-containing hot cereal and snack bar samples. The recovery of AVN 2c, 2p, and 2f from these two oat products was 95-113%, and the relative standard deviations ranged from 5% to 9%. This method was used to evaluate oat products and raw oat samples. The effects of location and variety on AVN composition were investigated. The method presented here provides a novel and rapid tool to quantitate the abundance of AVN 2c, 2p, and 2f in oat-containing products.