Determination of Phenolic Compounds in Paprika by Ultrahigh Performance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry: Application to Product Designation of Origin Authentication by Chemometrics

An
ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-electrospray-tandem
mass spectrometry method was developed for the determination of 36
phenolic compounds in paprika. The proposed method showed good method
performance with limits of quantitation between 0.03 and 50 μg/L
for 16 compounds and between 50 μg/L and 1 mg/L for 12 compounds.
Good linearity (R2 > 0.995), run-to-run
and day-to-day precisions (%RSD values < 12.3 and < 19.2%, respectively),
and trueness (relative errors < 15.0%) were obtained. The proposed
method was applied to the analysis of 111 paprika samples from different
production regions: Spain (La Vera PDO and Murcia PDO) and Czech Republic,
each one including different flavor varieties (sweet, bittersweet,
and spicy). Phenolic profiles and concentration levels showed to be
good chemical descriptors to achieve paprika classification and authentication
according to the production region by principal component analysis
and partial least squares regression-discriminant analysis. In addition,
perfect classification among flavor varieties for Murcia PDO and Czech
Republic samples was also obtained.