The fingerprinting of Sedivitax, a commercial botanical dietary supplement:The classical LC-MS approach vs direct metabolite mapping

The use of phytochemical preparations has shown a massive growth and consequently the related quality control is an important topic. Considering the possible interactions of the active molecules, arising to synergic phenomena, the use of the classical approach, based on the evaluation of the level of one or more active compounds can be limitative. Recently a method, based on the direct infusion of commercial botanical dietary supplements in an ESI source operating in positive and negative ion modes has been proposed. The results so obtained were highly promising, allowing the presence of specific plant extracts in commercial products to be determined. In order to evaluate its validity, the data so obtained have been compared with those achievable by a more consolidated technique, as LC-MS is. For this aim Sedivitax gocce (a commercial product composed by extracts of Passiflora incarnata, Eschscholtzia californica, Melissa officinalis and Valeriana officinalis) has been considered. Either the plant extracts or Sedivitax samples produced in different years have been analyzed by ESI (±) with direct infusion and LC-MS. The data obtained were elaborated with different statistical methods. The results suggest that mass spectrometry linked to statistical methods can be a quick method to assess the overall stability of a botanical dietary supplement, and can be proposed as a promising perspective in quality control.