Measurement of Saccharin and trans-Resveratrol Metabolites in Urine as Adherence Markers for Small Quantity Lipid-Based Nutrient Supplement Consumption

Saccharin and trans-resveratrol were incorporated into small quantity lipid-based nutritional supplements (SQ-LNS) to be evaluated as the markers of consumption for nutritional intervention studies. Forty-seven healthy women consumed a single supplement with either 8.6 mg of saccharin or 5 mg of trans-resveratrol, and urine was collected for 4 h. A rapid 11 min method employing multiple reaction monitoring and ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography coupled to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer was developed to measure saccharin and resveratrol metabolites in urine simultaneously. The linear dynamic range of the method was from 3 to 1000 ng mL–1, with the correlation coefficient of 0.999 and limits of quantification from 15.28 to 53.03 ng mL–1. Sample preparation was simple dilution with an average recovery of 97.8%. Ion suppression was observed with urine concentrations >10%. Mean levels of saccharin and resveratrol-3-O-sulfate in urine were 5.481 ± 4.359 and 3.440 ± 4.160 nmol L–1, respectively. We developed and validated a method to measure saccharin and trans-resveratrol metabolites in urine to objectively corroborate the consumption of SQ-LNS for the first time in nutrition intervention studies.