Quality evaluation of turmeric dietary supplements in the United States market using a quantification and UHPLC-HRMS metabolite ratio approach

Authors: LIU, ZHIHAO - University Of Maryland; Sun, Jianghao; YU, LIANGLI - University Of Maryland; Chen, Pei

Submitted to: ACS Food Science and Technology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/27/2023
Publication Date: 11/10/2023
Citation: Liu, Z., Sun, J., Yu, L., Chen, P. 2023. Quality evaluation of turmeric dietary supplements in the United States market using a quantification and UHPLC-HRMS metabolite ratio approach. ACS Food Science and Technology. 3(12):2256-2265. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.3c00469?urlappend=%3Fref%3DPDF&jav=VoR&rel=cite-as.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.3c00469?urlappend=%3Fref%3DPDF&jav=VoR&rel=cite-as

Interpretive Summary: Turmeric dietary supplements (DS) are becoming popular nutritional products around the world market because the potential health beneficial activities. Due to its high demand in market, false labeling claims and quality issues commonly occur within the turmeric DS market. However, the consumers are more likely to buy DS products that have label transparency. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the labeling claim accuracy and chemical profile of some turmeric DSs sold in the US market by UHPLC-HRMS. The strategy will be beneficial to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the turmeric DS products in the market.

Technical Abstract: Turmeric is one of the most popular herbal supplements used in food and dietary supplements industries but has faced labeling inconsistency and authenticity issues due to economic motivation. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the labeling claim accuracy and chemical profile of turmeric dietary supplements. Twelve turmeric dietary supplements from different branches in the US market along with reference standard were analyzed using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS). Only 5 out of the 12 samples analyzed qualify the labeling expectation of curcuminoid based on the sum of Curcumin (CUR), demethoxycurcumin (DMC) and bisdemethoxycurcumin (BMC). Besides, fourteen known curcuminoids and volatile oil were selected to represent the “natural” profile of turmeric, and the chemical profile of the market products were evaluated. Among the samples, at least half of them was suspicious of spiking with synthetic curcumin. The ratio of sum turmerones/sum curcuminoids was less than 20% for all the samples considered the spiking of synthetic curcumin, which is 54-74% for the others. All the results suggest the significant labeling inconsistency and quality issues of turmeric DSs in the market.