Investigating sub-2 μm particle stationary phase supercritical fluid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry for chemical profiling of chamomile extracts

•A new SFC-based instrumentation was investigated for natural product profiling.•Two different species of chamomile were compared by sub-2 μm SFC/MS and UPLC/MS.•The orthogonality to RPLC presented here facilitated the discovery of 6 unknown chemical features.•The methodology was applied to the authentic chamomile flowers and commercial tea samples.•Multivariate statistical analysis techniques were used to assess differences between the authentic chamomile and commercial tea samples.

Roman and German chamomile are widely used throughout the world. Chamomiles contain a wide variety of active constituents including sesquiterpene lactones. Various extraction techniques were performed on these two types of chamomile. A packed-column supercritical fluid chromatography–mass spectrometry method was designed for the identification of sesquiterpenes and other constituents from chamomile extracts with no derivatization step prior to analysis. Mass spectrometry detection was achieved by using electrospray ionization. All of the compounds of interest were separated within 15 min. The chamomile extracts were analyzed and compared for similarities and distinct differences. Multivariate statistical analysis including principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) were used to differentiate between the chamomile samples. German chamomile samples confirmed the presence of cis- and trans-tonghaosu, chrysosplenols, apigenin diglucoside whereas Roman chamomile samples confirmed the presence of apigenin, nobilin, 1,10-epioxynobilin, and hydroxyisonobilin.

Graphical abstractPCA analysis of the commercial tea sample extracts combined with the dataset of the authenticated chamomile extracts was examined. The phytochemical profile of the tea samples analyzed showed a similar profile compared to German chamomile.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide