Detection and identification of furan fatty acids from fish lipids by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

• Published in: Food chemistry Vol. 252; pp. 84 - 91
• Main Authors: Uchida, Hajime, Itabashi, Yutaka, Watanabe, Ryuichi, Matsushima, Ryoji, Oikawa, Hiroshi, Suzuki, Toshiyuki, Hosokawa, Masashi, Tsutsumi, Naonobu, Ura, Kazuhiro, Romanazzi, Donato, Miller, Matthew R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 30-06-2018
• Subjects: Animals; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - methods; Fatty Acids - analysis; Fatty Acids - chemistry; Fish lipids; Fishes; Furan fatty acids; Furans - chemistry; Galeorhinus galeus; High-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry; Macruronus novaezelandiae; Oncorhynchus keta; Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization - methods; Macruronus novaezelandiae; Furan fatty acids; High-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry; Fish lipids; Oncorhynchus keta; Galeorhinus galeus
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.01.044

•A convenient method to screen bioactive furan fatty acids in fish was developed.•For this purpose, reversed-phase HPLC/high-resolution ESI-Q-TOF-MS was used.•Accurate assignments of furan fatty acids were achieved by measuring exact masses.•Clear extracted ion chromatograms were obtained for all furan fatty acid homologs.•The method was successfully applied to Japanese and New Zealand fish oil samples.
Using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC/ESI-Q-TOF-MS), we have developed a new method for detection and identification of furan fatty acids (F-acids), which are widely distributed in living organisms and foods as minor lipid components and are known to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. For this purpose, total fatty acids prepared from the testis lipids of Japanese chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) were examined without any concentration or isolation of F-acids. In negative ESI mode, F-acids gave a prominent [M−H]− ion, by which individual F-acids could be detected and identified. High-resolution extracted ion chromatograms clearly showed the occurrence of five major F-acid homologs as already reported by GC/MS. The method was successfully applied to several fish samples and revealed the occurrence of F-acids for the first time in the two New Zealand fish, hoki (Macruronus novaezelandiae) and school shark (Galeorhinus galeus).