Quantitative analysis of pungent and anti-inflammatory phenolic compounds in olive oil by capillary electrophoresis

The first CE procedure for the quantitative determination of pharmacologically relevant secoiridoids in olive oil, oleocanthal and oleacein, is described. Together with their precursors tyrosol and hydroxytyrosol they could be baseline separated in less than 15 min using a borax buffer with pH 9.5, at 25 kV and 30 °C. Method validation confirmed that the procedure is selective, accurate (recovery rates from 94.0 to 104.6%), reproducible (σmax ≤ 6.8%) and precise (inter-day precision ≤ 6.4%), and that the compounds do not degrade quickly if non-aqueous acetonitrile is used as solvent. Quantitative results indicated a low occurrence of oleocanthal (0.004-0.021%) and oleacein (0.002-0.048%) in olive oil samples, which is in agreement to published HPLC data. The CE method impresses with its simple instrumental and methodological design, combined with reproducible and valid quantitative results. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Recent advances and new strategies in the NMR-based identification of natural products

Nature comprises an untapped pool of unique compounds with high structural uniqueness and exceptional properties. At the core of natural products (NPs) discovery is the identification procedure and NMR remains the most efficient method. Technical improvements such as miniaturized and crycogenic NMR probes along with hyphenation capabilities and computational support are at the center of evolution. Concepts such as dereplication and metabolomics are increasingly adopted in NPs using the power of databases, currently fragmented. The introduction and utilization of these technical and computational implements could lead NPs research to more comprehensive structure identification and new holistic perspectives. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd