LC–MS/MS-Based Quantification Method of Polyphenols for Valorization of Ancient Apple Cultivars from Cilento

Safeguarding the
biodiversity of plant species is of fundamental
importance for their defense against pests and diseases even through
the maintenance and dissemination of ancient agricultural traditions
rooted within the small rural environments. The investigation area
of the current research covered some municipalities belonging to the
“Parco Nazionale del Cilento e Vallo di Diano” including
the sub-mountainous part of “Comunità Montana del Vallo
di Diano (Salerno, Campania)”. Fifteen ancient apple varieties
were collected from local communities to be analyzed and compared
to some commercially available apples. To this aim, a Folin–Ciocâlteu
assay was preliminarily used to measure the total polyphenol content
in both ancient and commercial apple cultivars. Then, a liquid chromatography−tandem
mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) analysis in the multiple reaction
monitoring (MRM) ion mode was then implemented to detect and quantify
specific polyphenols and to obtain a molecular comparison of a wide
panel of polyphenols. The main finding of the present work pointed
out that ancient apple cultivars are richer than commercial ones in
anthocyanins, dihydrochalcones, and chlorogenic acid, whose beneficial
effects on health are widely known. Thus, the safeguarding of these
ancient varieties is greatly encouraged for the richness of polyphenols
crucial both for the defense of plants from insects and for remarkable
nutraceutical properties, in addition to the need for germplasm conservation
as a source of genetic variability.