Determination of endogenous phenolic compounds in honey by HPLC-MS/ MS

To achieve the highly selective, sensitive, and universal analysis of endogenous phenolic compounds in honey, 24 phenolic compounds were simultaneously analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry. Honey samples were extracted using ethyl acetate and 0.01 mol/L hydrochloric acid aqueous solution in two stages and cleaned by hydrophilic-lipophilic balanced columns. The 24 analytes exhibited good linearity, with coefficients of determination (R2) higher than 0.99. The limits of detection and quantitation were 0.2-1.0 and 0.6-3.0 & mu;g/kg, respectively; the recoveries were 71.5%-115.2%, and the intraand inter-day relative standard deviations were both <10%. Nine phenolic compounds, namely, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, rutin, vanillic acid, hyperoside, p-coumaric acid, syringic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, and gallic acid, were detected and quantified in honey samples collected from the Xinjiang province of China. The results show that the method was simple, highly sensitive, and accurate as well as suitable for the simultaneous analysis of endogenous phenolic compounds in honey samples.

Automated summary

To achieve comprehensive analysis of phenolic compounds in honey, a simple and reliable method using HPLC-MS/MS was developed. 24 compounds were simultaneously analyzed with good linearity and high sensitivity. The method proved to be suitable for the analysis of phenolic compounds in honey samples.