Liquid Chromatographic Fingerprints for the Characterization of Flavanol-Rich Nutraceuticals Based on 4-Dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde Precolumn Derivatization

Flavanols consist of a great family bioactive molecules displaying wide range health-promoting attributes for humans, including antioxidant, antimicrobial or anti-inflammatory effects. As result, botanical species rich in this type compound are often used to develop nutraceutical products dietary supplements with recognized healthy attributes. This paper aims at characterizing using liquid chromatographic fingerprints related flavanol composition. Catechins and their oligomers were exploited characterize authenticate various commercial prepared extracts red berries medicinal plants. These compounds resulted interesting descriptors some fruits vegetables, thus providing an additional perspective the study nutraceuticals. For such purpose, new method based on chromatography UV/Vis detection (HPLC–UV/Vis) precolumn derivatization 4-dimethylaminocinnamaldehyde was developed. Results indicated that separation flavanols very complex due degradation procyanidin derivatives. The resulting data sets analyzed chemometric methods as principal component analysis partial least square–discriminant analysis. Despite complexity fingerprints, samples could be discriminated according main ingredients. In general, catechin epicatechin most abundant different samples, A2 highly specific cranberry.