Identification of phospholipids classes and molecular species in different types of egg yolk by using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS

•PLs of duck, hen and quail egg yolks were analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS.•Egg yolk PLs elution sequence was as follow: PS > PI > PE > PC > SM > LPC.•57 molecular species of PLs in egg yolk were identified and quantified.•C16:0, C18:0, C18:1, C18:2 and C20:4 were the major fatty acids in egg yolk PLs.

Egg phospholipids (PLs) are currently the products of greatest commercial interest with major area of importance in various fields. Therefore, in this study, duck, hen and quail egg yolk PLs were isolated by solvent extraction with chilled acetone precipitation, and subsequently separated and identified by using ultra-performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS). Egg PLs were separated on hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) with ethylene bridged hybrid (BEH) column by gradient elution using acetonitrile/ammonium formate as a mobile phase, and detected by mass spectrometry (MS) under electrospray ionization in positive and negative ion mode. Structural characterizations of 57 molecular species of egg yolk PLs were identified based on MS/MS fragment ion information and elemental composition in MassLynx 4.1 software. The obtained results showed that phosphatidylcholine (16:0-18:1), phosphatidylethanolamine (18:0-20:4), phosphatidylinositol (18:0-18:2), phosphatidylserine (18:0-18:2), sphingomyelin (d18:1/16:0) and lysophosphatidylcholine (16:0) were the predominant species among the different classes of egg yolk phospholipids.