The objective of this study was to quantify the amount of (C) and (G) present in a beverage containing complex ingredients of Lingzhi fermentation solution and collagen in minutes without performing chromatographic separation. As a first step, the MS fingerprints for (C) and (G) were obtained as the sum of all the spectra between 0 and 1.0 min, at six levels of concentration (2, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 400 μg mL-1). Next, m/z values that were specific to (C) and (G) were identified.
The process of identifying meaningful
m/
z values principal to
(C) and
(G) was non-trivial since conventional strategy involved the application of mathematical procedures that transformed a number of possibly correlated variables into smaller number of uncorrelated variables by applying principal component analysis (PCA). Indeed, Sun and Chen ([
2011]) reported the application of PCA and analysis of variance (ANOVA) to authenticate
Scutellaria lateriflora in dietary supplements. In their study,
m/
z values specific to
Scutellaria lateriflora were known. In this study, however, the
m/
z values salient to both
(C) and
(G) were not known. By applying PCA and ANOVA analyses, we found that such dimension reduction strategy did not contribute toward the successful identification of meaningful
m/
z values that were principal to
(C) and
(G). One possible reason could be the data exhibited high variance with a paucity of replicates, thus providing a steep challenge to data mining (Enot et al. [
2008]). Indeed, if we refer to Figure showing the EMS spectra of both
(C) and
(G), the former MS spectra appear heavily weighted in the lower
m/
z range from 100 to 500, as compared to the latter that is weighted from
m/
z range 400 to 700. Simply, by applying a combination of PCA and ANOVA analyses without taking into account the weights of the relevant
m/
z ranges of individual spectra of
(C) and
(G), we run the risk of identifying false
m/
z values, thereby providing non-representative snapshots of the chemical content of the individual samples of
(C) and
(G).
To address this limitation, we applied a modified spectroscopic quantitation workflow reported previously (Lim et al. [
2011a]). Briefly the principal
m/
z values of
(C) and
(G) were identified by considering the correlation coefficient criteria of

>

= 0.995 by plotting the normalized intensity (Meuleman et al. [
2008]; Deininger et al. [
2011]) of the
m/
z values versus concentrations. Normalization was performed by utilizing Analyst 1.5.0 (AB SCIEX, Foster city, CA, USA) for windows. Within the framework of full MS spectra pattern recognition and its application to distinguish genera and species (Chen et al. [
2010]; Harnly et al. [
2009]), the principal
m/
z values of
(C) and
(G) were identified as: 104.2, 116.2, 120.2, 175.2, 236.3, 248.3, 266.3, 366.6 and 498.6; 439.7, 469.7, 511.7, 551.6, 623.6, 637.7 and 653.6, respectively. By utilizing multiple
m/
z values specific to
(C) and
(G), undue reliance on one or two marker
m/
z values was lifted, thereby increasing the robustness of the analysis.
Indeed, albeit the concept of utilizing correlation coefficient criteria as a strategy to identify prominent principal
(C) and
(G)m/
z values is relatively new to the framework of FI/MS, it is well-adapted in the field of vibrational spectroscopy (Lim et al. [
2011a]). In vibrational spectroscopy, absorption band characteristic of the standard materials were first identified and (their suitability) assessed by performing spike recovery studies in matrix. The results obtained were then used to construct a statistical model to predict concentrations of control samples. To construct a statistical model that possessed predictive capability, it was essential that absorption bands of the analyte and those of the matrix do not overlap: spectral overlapping gave rise to spectral interference, thereby rendering the results unusable for further statistical analysis. Within the framework of mass spectrometry, however, the limitation associated with mass spectra overlap in spectroscopy is lifted in that single
m/
z value does not relate to individual analyte present in the herbal extracts; chemical fingerprints from different analytes can contribute to several
m/
z signals in the spectra and it is equally common for several analytes to contribute to the same
m/
z value (Enot et al. [
2006]). By the same strategy but applied to the framework of FI/MS, in order to assess if the identified principal
m/
z values were useful for predicting concentrations of control samples accurately through spiking experiments, a statistical model (ANN) was constructed by utilizing intensities of individual
m/
z values of
(C) and
(G) at their respective concentration levels (2, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 400 μg mL
-1).
While the models obtained for both
(C) and
(G) appeared well trained and validated, we found that it was necessary to introduce some noise into the respective models to assess if the models were sensitive to statistical outlier due to repeat analyses using MS, as judged basing on the RMSE values. The inclusion of this additional step was to address concerns associated with possible
m/
z signal confusion (with instrumental artifacts) discussed by Enot and colleagues for experiments involving no chromatographic step. To achieve the objective of enhanced noise to signal data separation, spectra of solvent blanks (representing noise) comprising 50:50 (v/v) mobile phases of 0.1% formic acid (A) and MeOH (B) were entered into the ANN models, where the process of model training and cross validation was reiterated by utilizing the same K-fold condition and three hidden nodes. As expected, the RMSE and
r2 values for both
(C) and
(G) basing on the results obtained by applying the individual cross validated model changed from <4% to >10%, and from 0.9990 to 0.8900, respectively. The increase in RMSE values and reduction in
r2 values suggested that the cross validated models for
(C) and
(G), when fully optimized, were sufficiently robust in identifying noise in the data. The high sensitivity of the RMSE and
r2 values with respect to noise in the data highlighted the need to perform an additional data pre-processing step prior to performing statistical analyses. Indeed, our observation is in good agreement with protocols reported by other researchers (Enot et al [
2006]; Broadhurst and Kell [
2006]). One possible solution to achieve data integrity would be to consider applying t-test as a data pre-processing step. In this study, however, no data cleanup was performed, thereby suggesting that the LIT was robust as a tool when applied to perform repeat analyses.
With the integrity of both models ascertained, efforts were then focused on studying the signal enhancement/suppression effect in matrix.
In order to better understand signal enhancement/suppression due to interfering ions and distinguish such effect from poor recovery due to solvent extraction efficiency, spiking experiments were performed at six levels of concentration (2, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 400 μg mL-1) post solvent extraction step. Carry over was initially detected in the solvent blank after each sample injection. For this reason, FI/MS experiments were performed by adding an equilibrium step of 2 min between injections to allow the residual m/z values to be purged from the LC system completely. As the salient m/z values of (C) and (G) were unique, the absence of these salient m/z values in the MS spectra was used as an indicator of a good solvent blank.
By referring to LOQ values shown in Table , two observations were made: the LOQ values for
(C) and
(G) were both pinned; the LOQ values were significantly higher than the detection limit of the QTrap 5500 MS instrument, reported previously (Lim et al. [
2011a]). Indeed, owing to the direct flow injection strategy applied in the entirety of the method validation, we observed severe precipitation (technical difficulties) occurring on the cone surface. This enhanced precipitation contributed to severe random arcing at the source tip, thereby rendering data (integrity) obtained at lower concentration levels to be compromised. For this reason, the ANN models constructed using these compromised data only achieve
r2 values of 0.7 or poorer at high RMSE values (>50%). To achieve a fine balance between the integrity of the LIT (protect from contamination due to direct flow injection) and reasonable method sensitivity, the curtain gas value used to perform MS analyses was therefore increased from 25 to 30. This increase in curtain gas value (from 25 to 30) gave rise to a resultant 10 times reduction in method sensitivity, which explained the LOQ values pinning phenomena observed for both
(C) and
(G). Therefore, the LOQ values reported in Table should be interpreted as a conservative representation of the method true capability.
Indeed, while the application of this adapted scaffold may be suitable for other bacteria analysis as well, it is equally important that synthetically cultivated bacteria and naturally occurring bacteria are differentiated since the former would possibly contain a relatively more replicable MS fingerprint akin to those of pharmaceutical produce. For this reason, the implementation of this adapted scaffold in a high-throughput production plant would imply a need to perform materials reassessment to suitably address ANN model integrity concerns associated with batch to batch materials variations.
In summary, an accurate, highly selective and reliable method utilizing FI/MS/ANN quantitation strategy of
(C) and
(G) in complex matrix containing Lingzhi fermentation solution and collagen was developed. The application of a simplified rule-based workflow (
r
>

=0.995) via ANN analyses facilitated an easy, accurate and fit-for-purpose solution toward the identification of features salient to extracts of
(C) and
(G) without the need to perform chromatographic separation. The high throughput capability offered by applying direct flow injection strategy, together with the enhanced selectivity and robustness enabled by utilizing multiple
m/
z values distilled via ANN modeling pathways, are perhaps resolutions to fields that demand analyte specificity and MS fingerprinting quantitation capabilities that are not easily achievable when multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) transition and MS
3 are applied. Application of this adapted scaffold in a high-throughput routine environment (such as herbal products manufacturing plant) would imply a significant reduction in effort and time, since the option of having a model driven analytical solution is now available.