Interlaboratory Coverage Test on Plant Food Bioactive Compounds and their Metabolites by Mass Spectrometry-Based Untargeted Metabolomics

Bioactive compounds present in plant-based foods, and their metabolites derived from gut microbiota and endogenous metabolism, represent thousands of chemical structures of potential interest for human nutrition and health. State-of-the-art analytical methodologies, including untargeted metabolomics based on high-resolution mass spectrometry, are required for the profiling of these compounds in complex matrices, including plant food materials and biofluids. The aim of this project was to compare the analytical coverage of untargeted metabolomics methods independently developed and employed in various European platforms. In total, 56 chemical standards representing the most common classes of bioactive compounds spread over a wide chemical space were selected and analyzed by the participating platforms (n = 13) using their preferred untargeted method. The results were used to define analytical criteria for a successful analysis of plant food bioactives. Furthermore, they will serve as a basis for an optimized consensus method.
This research was funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya’s Agency AGAUR (grant number 2017 SGR 1546), the Spanish MINECO´s “Juan de la Cierva” programme (grant number FJCI-2015-26590), Spanish National Programme for Research Aimed at the Challenges of Society (AGL2016-76832-R), the Czech Science Foundation (grant number 18-00132S), the European Structural and Investment Funds (grant agreement No. VEKOP-2.3.3-15-2017-00022), and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (grant number LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-402-022125). Networking support was provided by the COST Action FA1403 POSITIVe (Inter-individual variation in response to consumption of plant food bioactives and determinants involved), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).