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Characterization of the Ingredients in Fish Oils and Herbal Dietary Supplements analyzed by GC‐MS and HPLC‐ELSD
Author(s) -
Ikediobi Stephanie,
Nikolau Basil J.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.1176.28
Subject(s) - chromatography detector , ingredient , docosahexaenoic acid , high performance liquid chromatography , eicosapentaenoic acid , food science , chromatography , fish oil , chemistry , fatty acid , polyunsaturated fatty acid , biology , fish <actinopterygii> , biochemistry , fishery
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates dietary supplements differently than conventional drugs, which raises questions for consumers about dietary supplement integrity. Previous analyses by DNA fingerprinting indicated that dietary supplements might contain unreported contaminants (NYAG 2013 [Press Release]1). However there are limitations to DNA fingerprinting technology, in that intact DNA segments from 500–1000 bps need to be in the sample to accurately analyze the DNA fingerprint of the sample. Because many dietary supplements use production practices that heavily process the product, DNA fragments may not retain integrity, resulting in misidentification (Reynaud et. al. 20152). Our goal is to build on previously established biochemical analytical platforms and analyze dietary supplements using chromatographic methods such as Gas Chromatography‐Mass Spectrophotometry (GC‐MS) and/or High Performance Liquid Chromatography – Evaporative Light Scattering Detector (HPLC–ELSD) to quantitatively characterize the presence of primary “putative bioactive” ingredients, and compare these data to manufacturers’ claims. For example, oil supplements such as fish and krill oil are a rich source of omega‐3 fatty acids, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and are typically consumed for cardiovascular health. We evaluated commercially available fish and krill oils by GC‐MS analysis of the fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs), and the lipid profiles of these oils by HPLC‐ELSD analysis. These analyses indicate that some manufacturers under‐report or over‐report the bioactive ingredient amounts per capsule. These findings highlight the complexity by which the integrity of dietary supplements can be measured.