Simultaneous determination of six glycosidic aroma precursors in pomelo by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

An ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was established and validated for the simultaneous determination of six glycosidic aroma precursors in pomelo, including geraniol β-glucoside, geraniol β-primeveroside, linalool β-primeveroside, benzyl β-primeveroside, 2-phenylethyl β-primeveroside and nerolidol β-primeveroside. The results showed that the proposed method has the advantages of rapidity, high sensitivity, and good accuracy. Six glycosidic aroma precursors were effectively separated in a short run time (13 min), and the limit of detection, limit of quantification, recovery, and repeatability of analytes were 0.321–4.47 ng mL⁻¹, 1.07–14.9 ng mL⁻¹, 94.4–109.1%, and 5.2–14.5%, respectively. The developed method was applied to analyze the contents of glycosidic aroma precursors in different organs of pomelo plant, including leaves, flowers and fruits. The analytical result showed that glycosidic aroma precursor contents in plant leaves, flowers and fruits were in the range of 0–5964.9 μg kg⁻¹, and more glycosidic aroma precursors were found in flowers than in leaves or fruits. It is envisioned that the proposed UPLC-MS/MS method have promising application in qualifying and quantifying these six glycosidic aroma precursors in pomelo.