Ricerc@Sapienza

Liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry is the technique of choice for the untargeted profiling of food matrices. Despite the high potential of high-resolution mass spectrometry, when dealing with complex mixtures, an efficient separation technique is also needed. The novel core-shell chromatographic columns packed with sub-2 ?m sized particles are claimed to show very good resolution. However, the analytes retention can be significantly altered when working under ultra-high performance chromatographic conditions.

The aim of metabolic untargeted profiling is to detect and identify unknown compounds in a biological matrix to achieve the most comprehensive metabolic coverage. In phytochemical mixtures, however, the complexity of the sample could present significant difficulties in compound identification. In this case, the optimization of both the chromatographic and the mass-spectrometric conditions is supposed to be crucial for the detection and identification of the largest number of compounds.