METABOLOMICS 4 Instumental Analysis
Metabolomics centres around the detection of the broadest possible range of small molecules (<1,500 Da) in complex biological matrices using a single or small number of analyses has also emerged as a field of interest in food and feed analysis.
While gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) is typically used for the analysis of (semi)volatile metabolome components (in some studies, the method scope is extended by derivatization of polar compounds), liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) is preferred for the analysis of a wide range of not GC-amenable compounds. For very polar and ionic analytes hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) can be employed or for polar and non-polar (e.g., lipids) metabolites reversed phase (ultra)-high performance liquid chromatography [RP-(U)HPLC] is utilized.
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) permits the detection of a broad scope of analytes within a single run but is mainly used in the analysis of polar metabolites and typically suffers from lower sensitivity as compared to GC–MS and LC–MS.
Besides these instrumental platforms, ambient desorption ionization techniques represent a novel solution for metabolomic fingerprinting and profiling allowing direct sample examination in the open atmosphere, with minimal or no sample preparation requirements and remarkably high sample throughput.