ABSTRACT
Plants produce a wide range of secondary metabolites of highly diverse chemical structures, ranging from relatively simple organic chemicals to toxic complex molecules. Over the last decade, complex natural matrices demand the use of advanced analytical techniques, such as high-performance liquid chromatography and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC and UHPLC), along with modern fluorescence detectors (FLD), photodiode array detectors (PDA), mass spectrometry (MS), or a combination of novel detection methods. HPLC coupled with various MS detectors has become the most significant technique for the determination of food toxins of plant origin. The common plant toxins in food include various grayanotoxins, strychnine, opium alkaloids, aconitine, ricinine, cardiac glycosides, and aristolochic acid. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are another major class of plant toxins that cause serious health problems. The main tools for analyzing food on pyrrolizidine alkaloids content are based on GC and HPLC separation, followed by MS/MS detection. HPLC separation, combined with a variety of detectors, has been widely applied to the analysis of phytoestrogen precursors in food or plant-derived food products.
