ZHOU Qinghua, QIU Rongxing, WU Juan, et al
2026, 55(1): 12-18.
Phenolic compounds can be transformed into glycoside conjugates upon entering plants, which may release free phenolic compounds in the gastrointestinal tract of animals. Ignoring the presence of glycoside complexes can lead to an underestimation of the risks associated with phenolic compounds. This study developed an analytical method for the simultaneous determination of five phenolic compounds and their glycoside conjugates in complex plant matrices using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry(LC-MS/MS). Key parameters, including chromatographic mobile phase, extraction solvents, and elution solvents, were systematically optimized. Methanol-water was selected as the mobile phase, with a V(methanol)∶V(water) ratio of 9∶1 for extraction, and 5 mL of methanol combined with 5 mL of dichloromethane as the elution solvent for solid-phase extraction. A matrix-matched approach was employed to minimize matrix interference during quantitative analysis. This method demonstrated satisfactory sensitivity, with limits of detection and quantification ranging from 0.2-0.6 ng/g and 0.6-2.0 ng/g, respectively. Spiked recovery rates ranged from 79.2% to 103.1%, with intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviations of 2.8% to 10.7% and 5.6% to 18.3%, respectively, indicating good precision and reproducibility. Application of this method to contaminated lettuce samples showed significantly higher levels of phenolic glycoside conjugates(413.2-2 637.1 ng/g) compared to phenolic parents(172.8-569.6 ng/g). This finding suggests that neglecting glycoside conjugates in lettuce would lead to a 0.8-7.5 fold underestimation of the health risks associated with phenolic contamination.
