Detection of adulteration in Hydrastis canadensis (goldenseal) dietary supplements via untargeted mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. (October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wallace, Emily D.; Oberlies, Nicholas H.; Cech, Nadja B.; Kellogg, Joshua J.
• Is Part Of: Food and chemical toxicology. Volume 120(2018)
• Page Start: 439
• Page End: 447
• Publication Date: 2018-10
• Subjects: Metabolomics -- Goldenseal -- Adulteration -- Dietary supplements -- Mass spectrometry; Toxicology -- Periodicals; Food poisoning -- Periodicals; Food Poisoning -- Periodicals; Toxicology -- Periodicals; Toxicologie -- Périodiques; Intoxications alimentaires -- Périodiques; Food poisoning; Toxicology; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 615.9
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2018.07.033
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0278-6915

Abstract

Abstract: Current estimates report that approximately 25% of U.S. adults use dietary supplements for medicinal purposes. Yet, regulation and transparency within the dietary supplement industry remains a challenge, and economic incentives encourage adulteration or augmentation of botanical dietary supplement products. Undisclosed changes to the dietary supplement composition could impact safety and efficacy; thus, there is a continued need to monitor possible botanical adulteration or mis-identification. Goldenseal, Hydrastis canadensis L. (Ranunculaceae), is a well-known botanical used to combat bacterial infections and digestive problems and is widely available as a dietary supplement. The goal of this study was to evaluate potential adulteration in commercial botanical products using untargeted metabolomics, with H. canadensis supplements serving as a test case. An untargeted ultraperformance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) metabolomics analysis was performed on 35 H. canadensis commercial products. Visual inspection of the chemometric data via principal component analysis (PCA) revealed several products that were distinct from the main groupings of samples, and subsequent evaluation of contributing metabolites led to their confirmation of the outliers as originating from a non-goldenseal species or a mixture of plant materials. The obtained results demonstrate the potential for untargeted metabolomics to discriminate between multiple unknown products and predict possible adulteration. Graphical abstract: Highlights: Commercial goldenseal supplements were analyzed by mass spectrometry-based profiling and untargeted metabolomic analysis. Untargeted metabolomics analysis identified three outliers from a multi-sample dataset of goldenseal supplements. These outliers were compared to non-goldenseal species to support the conclusion of possible adulteration. Untargeted approaches did not require any a priori knowledge of the adulterating botanicals nor relevant marker ions.