The compositional space of exhaled breath condensate and its link to the human breath volatilome.

Breath analysis is commonly understood to target gaseous or volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for the characterization of different pathologies. Targeted analysis is most effective if a working hypothesis can be based on a plethora of data. The recently published volatilome builds an optimal basis for organizing powerful target sets. However, the origin and pathways of biosynthesis of many VOCs are not known, which complicates the formulation of useful hypotheses. To find the missing link between VOCs and their origin, it is necessary to analyze their precursor fluids themselves. In order to provide condensation nuclei for the generation of future hypotheses, we provide the compositional space over 23 samples of the unperturbed human exhaled breath condensate (EBC) metabolome. We propose a way to connect the compositional spaces of both VOCs and EBC so as to gain insight into the most probable form of VOC precursors. In a way analogous to tandem MS it is possible to create a mass difference network over compositional data by linking compositions with mass differences that are designed to mimic biochemical reactions. We propose to use mass difference enrichment analysis (MDEA) in order to mine probable relations between VOCs and their precursor fluids. We have found 2691 EBC compositions and linked them to 235 breath VOC compositions that correspond to 848 individual compounds. We found that VOCs are likely to be found as hexose conjugates or as amino acid conjugates with Glutamine or Asparagine playing a major role. Furthermore, we found that dicarboxylic acid mass differences may be more indicative for oxidative stress than oxygenation-hydrogenation sequences.

The content of high-intensity sweeteners in different categories of foods available on the Polish market.

The objective of this study was to measure the concentrations of nine high-intensity sweeteners (acesulfame-K, aspartame, alitame, cyclamate, dulcin, neohesperidin DC, neotame, saccharin and sucralose) in different categories of food available on the Polish market. Over 170 samples of different brands of beverages, yoghurts, fruit preparations, vegetable preserves and fish products were analysed using an analytical procedure based on SPE and LC/MS. The results indicated that foodstuffs under the study generally comply with European Union legislation in terms of sweetener content. However, a few cases of food product mislabelling were detected, i.e. the use of cyclamate for non-approved applications.

Determination of nine high-intensity sweeteners in various foods by high-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection.

An analytical procedure involving solid-phase extraction (SPE) and high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry has been developed for the determination of nine high-intensity sweeteners authorised in the EU; acesulfame-K (ACS-K), aspartame (ASP), alitame (ALI), cyclamate (CYC), dulcin (DUL), neohesperidin dihydrochalcone (NHDC), neotame (NEO), saccharin (SAC) and sucralose (SCL) in a variety of food samples (i.e. beverages, dairy and fish products). After extraction with a buffer composed of formic acid and N,N-diisopropylethylamine at pH 4.5 in ultrasonic bath, extracts were cleaned up using Strata-X 33 µm Polymeric SPE column. The analytes were separated in gradient elution mode on C(18) column and detected by mass spectrometer working with an electrospray source in negative ion mode. To confirm that analytical method is suitable for its intended use, several validation parameters, such as linearity, limits of detection and quantification, trueness and repeatibilty were evaluated. Calibration curves were linear within a studied range of concentrations (r(2) ≥ 0.999) for six investigated sweeteners (CYC, ASP, ALI, DUL, NHDC, NEO). Three compounds (ACS-K, SAC, SCL) gave non-linear response in the investigated concentration range. The method detection limits (corresponding to signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of 3) were below 0.25 µg mL(-1) (µg g(-1)), whereas the method quantitation limits (corresponding to S/N ratio of 10) were below 2.5 µg mL(-1) (µg g(-1)). The recoveries at the tested concentrations (50%, 100% and 125% of maximum usable dose) for all sweeteners were in the range of 84.2 ÷ 106.7%, with relative standard deviations <10% regardless of the type of sample matrix (i.e. beverage, yoghurt, fish product) and the spiking level. The proposed method has been successfully applied to the determination of the nine sweeteners in drinks, yoghurts and fish products. The procedure described here is simple, accurate and precise and is suitable for routine quality control analysis of foodstuffs.

Retention behaviour of some high-intensity sweeteners on different SPE sorbents.

The objective of this paper is to provide information about application of solid-phase extraction (SPE) for isolation of nine high-intensity sweeteners (acesulfame-K, alitame, aspartame, cyclamate, dulcin, neotame, saccharin, sucralose and neohesperidin dihydrochalcone) from aqueous solutions. The influence of several types of LC-MS compatible buffers (different pH values and compositions) on their recovery has been studied and discussed. A number of commercially available SPE cartridges, such as Chromabond C18ec, Strata-X RP, Bakerbond Octadecyl, Bakerbond SDB-1, Bakerbond SPE Phenyl, Oasis HLB, LiChrolut RP-18, Supelclean LC-18, Discovery DSC-18 and Zorbax C18 were tested in order to evaluate their applicability for the isolation of analytes. Very high recoveries (better than 92%) of all studied compounds were obtained using formic acid-N,N-diisopropylethylamine buffer adjusted to pH 4.5 and C(18)-bonded silica sorbents. Behaviour of polymeric sorbents strongly depends on their structure. Strata-X RP behaves much like a C(18)-bonded silica sorbent. Recoveries obtained using Oasis HLB were comparable with those observed for silica-based sorbents. The only compound less efficiently (83%) retained by this sorbent was cyclamate. Bakerbond SDB-1 shows unusual selectivity towards aspartame and alitame. Recoveries of these two sweeteners were very low (26 and 42%, respectively). It was also found that aspartame and alitame can be selectively separated from the mixture of sweeteners using formic acid-triethylamine buffer at pH 3.5.