Location: Methods and Application of Food Composition Laboratory
Project Number: 8040-52000-066-002-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2014
End Date: Sep 30, 2019
Objective:
1. Acquire authentic raw botanical materials that reflect the natural variation, initiate a national sampling of commercially available botanical supplements, and acquire samples of challenging botanical materials.
2. Develop spectral and chromatographic fingerprint methods using NIR, UV, MS, NMR, HPLC, and UHPLC for rapid identification based on chemical composition.
3. Acquire DNA barcodes for selected raw and processed botanical supplements.
4. Acquire metabolite profiles using UHPLC-HRMS and high field 1H-NMR.
5. Acquire DNS barcodes for raw and, where possible, commercial botanical materials.
6. Develop a prototype database for botanical supplements with taxonomic, genetic, fingerprint, and metabolomic profiles.
Approach:
New and innovative methods will be used to identify, authenticate, and characterize botanical supplements-from raw ingredients to processed products. Development of these methods is challenging to the analyst and necessary for the consumer and industry. Over the next five years, we propose to combine analytical data with taxonomic and genetic data to provide the clearest possible description of botanical supplement, their components, and their variability. We will obtain a wide range of authentic raw materials through purchases and collaborations to account for expected natural variation. We will acquire, through collaboration, a national sampling of commercially aviailable botanical supplements. We will investigate, through an SCA with the North Carolina Arboretum, a variety of challenging botanicals that are of commercial interest (Aloe sp. and camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze-tea), or exhibit altered phenotypes as a result of hybridization (Echinacea sp.) or endophytic fungi (Actaea racemosa L., black cohosh). We will use chemical fingerprinting, based on both chromatographic and direct spectral analysis, and chemometric data processing to provide rapid identification of botanicals and to discriminate between authentic and adulterated materials. We will use ultra high performance liquid chromatography-high resolution accurate mass/mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS) and high field proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectrometry (through an RSA with the University of Maryland) to develop metabolite profiles of the raw botanical materials. We will acquire DNA barcodes for all the materials we analyze through an SCA with Authen Technologies. We will combine these data (taxonomic, genetic, fingerprint, and metabolomic profiles) in a prototype database that, when finalized, will allow identification of raw botanicals through DNA barcodes of chemical figherprints and will provide access to the full chemical composition of the botanical material.
