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Despite its seriousness, food fraud has not received the necessary attention in Ghana’s discourse on food safety. Food fraud is generally considered as the intentional misrepresentation of the contents or identity of food for economic gain. The study was aimed at assessing the food fraud awareness level of participants as well as the foods most likely to be implicated in food fraud cases in Tamale, Ghana. Data was collected from 385 participants, including food business operators and consumers, via a simple random sampling technique using a structured questionnaire. Most participants (54%) were not aware of food fraud and its related activities before the study. Beverages and juices, fruits and vegetables, spices, oils, meat and fish, baked foods, honey, milk, and semi-processed local foods such as groundnut paste, "Dawadawa," “Kulikuli zim,” and “Agushi powder” were all revealed to be implicated in food fraud by respondents. Adulteration was the most common food fraud action, but tampering, substitution, and mislabeling were also identified as ongoing in the study area. “Moora” (Bixa orellana seeds) was revealed as the key adulterant used in most foods. Food fraud, which is a threat to consumer health and well-being, is active in the region and is predicted to increase without strict regulation and increased sensitization about its dangers. The fight against food fraud should be refocused on making food defense systems like vulnerability analysis and critical control points (VACCP) a key aspect of food safety systems to tackle food fraud.
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OBJECTIVE: To apply DNA barcoding coupled with high resolution melting analysis to distinguish Gentiana rhodantha from its adulterants. METHODS: The internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) barcode was selected for HRM analysis to produce standard melting profile of the selected species. RESULTS: The ITS2 molecular regions coupled with HRM analysis can effectively differentiate five herbal species, including two Gentiana rhodantha and their four common adulterants. CONCLUSION: DNA barcoding coupled with HRM analysis is a accurate, reliable, rapid, cost-effective and robust tool, which may contribute to the quality control of traditional Chinese medicine in the natural health product industry.
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OBJECTIVE: To establish a new qualitative and quantitative screening method for 114 illegal adulterants in traditional Chinese medicine for health care based on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with high four-stage electrostatic field orbital well tandem mass spectrometry. METHODS: Using 0.1% formic acid aqueous solution-acetonitrile as mobile phase, gradient elution was performed on SHISEIDO CAPCELL PAK C18 column(3.0 mm×100 mm,3 μm)with column temperature of 40 ℃ and flow rate of 0.3 mL•min-1. The gradient elution program was as follows: 0-18 min, acetonitrile was from 2% to 100%; 18-23 min, acetonitrile was 100%; 23.1-25 min, acetonitrile was 2%. The mass spectrometry was carried out with electrospray ionization source, four stage electrostatic field track mass spectrometry as mass analyzer, and scanning range m/z 120-750, spray voltage 3.5 kV, sheath pressure (N2) 275.8 kPa, auxiliary air pressure (N2) 68.95 kPa. High resolution and high quality mass spectrometry data of parent ions and fragment ions were obtained simultaneously by one injection. The structures of illegal additions were further confirmed by the accurate mass of secondary mass spectrometry. RESULTS: This method could simultaneously detect 114 kinds of illegally added chemical drugs of 11 categories including tranquilizers, hormones, slimming, hypoglycemic, hypotensive, lipid-lowering, psychotropic, antiviral, antitussive, analgesic and aphrodisiac drugs within 25 min. The linear range, sensitivity, repeatability and recovery rate all met the requirements of analysis. CONCLUSION: The screening method established by four-stage electrostatic field orbital trap mass spectrometry coupled with HPLC is fast, convenient, accurate and retrospective, and can meet the needs of screening confirmation for target and non-target illegal additions.
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To identify the precious bile powder and its adulterants by DNA barcoding, and establish its standard experimental process to ensure the safe and effective utilization. Total twelve sequences from samples of bear bile powder which come from Ursus thibetanus for DNA extraction, PCR(polymerase chain reaction) and sequence, then using CodonCode Aligner V 7.0.1 shear primer region to obtain COI sequence. The COI sequences of U. arctos and their adulterants were obtained from GenBank. MEGA7.0 software was applied for analyzing mutation, calculating intraspecific and interspecific K2P(Kimura 2-Parameter) genetic distance and constructing the Neighbor-joining tree(NJ). The results showed that the maximum K2P genetic distance of bear bile powder of U. thibetanus and U. arctos are far less than minimum K2P genetic distance within its adulterants species, and the results of NJ tree demonstrated that each species could be distinguished from the counterfeits obviously. DNA barcoding is a safe, convenient and reliable technique for species identification, and it is important to establish the standard sequence of COI sequences for animal medicines.
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Animals , Bile , Chemistry , DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic , Medicine, Chinese Traditional , Phylogeny , Quality Control , UrsidaeABSTRACT
Objective To establish the UPLC fingerprint for effective quality control and scientific evaluation of Picrorhiza scrophulariiflora. Methods The analysis was performed on Waters ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 column (100 mm × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm), using acetonitrile-0.5% glacial acetic acid aqueous solution as mobile phase for gradient elution, with the flow rate at 0.3 mL/min, the column temperature at 32 ℃, and the detection wavelength at 295 nm. Total of 25 batches of P. scrophulariiflora and its adulterants were analyzed. Similarity evaluation combined with hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) and principal components analysis (PCA) were used to evaluate the quality of herbs from different batches. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography- quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF/MS) was used for qualitative analysis in the positive and negative ion modes. Results There were significant differences in fingerprint chromatogram among P. scrophulariiflora and its adulterants. There were 16 common peaks in UPLC fingerprint of 22 batches of P. scrophulariiflora, and 12 peaks among which were carried out for chemical components identification with the similarity at 0.939-0.998. Twenty-two samples could be classified into three clusters. The PCA result was consistent with that of HCA. The four symbolic compounds in samples were verified by PLS-DA analysis, which identified that No.1, 12, 9 peaks were picroside I, picroside III, and scrophenoside C. Conclusion The establishment of UPLC fingerprint and the recognition of chemical pattern of P. scrophulariiflora can provide a more comprehensive reference for the quality control of herbs.
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Cyathula capitate is the main adulterant of C.offinalis. According to the literature reported, there are obvious differences in properties, taste and pharmacological activity between C. capitate and C.offinalis. Therefore, C. capitate can only be used as a local conventional medicine and can't be a substitute for C. offinalis. Since the appearance of C.capitata is very similar to the C.offinalis and the content of cyasterone also can reach the limit of the current pharmacopoeia standard, the C.capitata is mostly sold in the form of impersonation oradmixture, which seriously affected the safety of the clinical medication and the development of the genuine crude drugs. In view of this, HPLC characteristic fingerprint was used to reveal the difference of multi-ingredients of C. offinalis, C. capitata and their admixture. According to the HPLC chromatogram of C.offinalis, C. capitata. and their admixture, 65 different components were obtained to set up a peak area data matrix of 26×65, which was applied to perform the characteristic peak difference analysis, similarity analysis, hierarchical clustering analysis HCA and principal component analysis (PCA). Characteristic peak difference analysis showed that the characteristic peaks of C. capitata and their admixture are more and higher respond than those of C. offinalis. The 9 characteristic peaks were used to distinguish C. capitata, 2 of which were used to distinguish C. offinalis mixed with 5% C. capitata. UV spectra of 9 characteristic peaks are mostly similar to the end absorption spectra of saponins, indicating that C. capitata may contain a large amount of saponins. By the reference fingerprint of C.offinalis established, the similarity analysis showed that the similarity degree of C. offinalis are higher than 0.942, while the similarity degree of C. capitata, C.offinalis mixed with 5% C. capitata are less than 0.383 and 0.399. C.offinalis, C. capitata, C.offinalis mixed with 5% C. capitata could be obviously divided into 3 classes by HCA and PCA. These results showed that there are obvious difference in the chemical composition of C. offinalis, C. capitata and their admixture, which could provide evidence for their identification.
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Objective A rapid method was constructed for detection of 3 kinds of phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5) inhibitors (sidenafil,vardalafil,tadalafil) in invigorative health food by paper spray ionization mass spectrometry (PSI-MS method).Methods The characteristic ions of the PDE5 inhibitors could be used for preliminary identification and semiquantitative analysis with internal standard method using PSI-MS method.Results The 24 kinds of commercially available health-care products includes capsule,tablet,pill,powder,wine,syrup and liquid were tested.Results from PSI-MS were consistent with the HPLC-UV date.The calibration curves of PSI-MS has a good linearity in a given range.The linear coefficients of analytes were higher than 0.99.The LODs of 3 kinds of PDE5 inhibitors were lower than 1.0 mg/L.The RSDs of this method ranged from 20％ to 24％.Conclusion The PSI-MS method was rapid,accurate and targeted,which is compliant for quickly screening the PDE5 inhibitors in large complex matrix samples.
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OBJECTIVE: To identify Rubi Parvifolii Radix from its adulterants using ITS2 sequence. METHODS: All the DNA of Rubi Parvifolii Radix and its adulterants were extracted. All the sequences were assembled using the CondonCode Aligner V3.7.1. The Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) genetic distances and the neighbor joining (NJ) phylogenetic tree were calculated by using MEGA5.1. RESULTS: The ITS2 sequences were succesfully amplified and sequenced. The length of ITS2 sequences of Rubus parvifo-lius was 212 bp, and the average GC content was 57.42%. Among 20 ITS2 sequences of R. parvifolius, three transversions were detected at site 66, 118 and 177. The maximum intra-specific K2P distance of R. parvifolius was 0.014, lower than the minimum interspecific K2P distances of adulterants, except for R. coreanus. Additionally, the ITS2 sequences of all the polytypic species were separated into pairs of divergent clusters in the NJ tree and R. parvifolius can be distinguished clearly from its adulterants. The ITS2 sequences of 23 samples of Rubi Parvifolii Radix collected from different herb markets, were successfully amplified. The NJ tree analysis indicated that 13 samples clustered with R. parvifolius, while the other 10 samples were clustered into other divergent clusters. CONCLUSION: ITS2 Sequence can be used as DNA barcode to correctly identify Rubi Parvifolii Radix from its adulterant.
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OBJECTIVE: To explore a new method to identify Microcos paniculata to guarantee its safe use. METHODS: ITS2 Sequence was used as a barcode to identify herbal tea ingredient M. paniculata and its adulterants. The genomic DNAs from 56 samples were extracted, and the ITS2 sequences were amplified and bidirectionally sequenced. All the sequences were assembled and obtained using the CodonCode Aligner V3.7.1. The genetic distances were computed by kimura 2-parameter (K2P) model and the neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic trees were constructed using MEGA6.1. RESULTS: The length of ITS2 sequence of M. paniculata was 237 bp. The intra-specific genetic distances (0-0.036) were much shorter than the inter-specific genetic distances (0.155-0.404) between M. paniculata and its adulterants. The NJ tree indicated that M. paniculata and its adulterants could be distinguished clearly. CONCLUSION: ITS2 Barcode can accurately and effectively distinguish herbal tea ingredient M. paniculata from its adulterants, which provides a new molecular method to identify M. paniculata from its adulterants. It is a great help for the market supervision and medication safety.
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OBJECTIVE: To establish an accurate identification method of genuine Hippocampus based on COI sequences as DNA barcodes and analyze the relationship between the genuine and adulterants of Hippocampus. METHODS: Two hundred and e-leven pieces of COI sequences were collected from 21 Hippocampus species in this study. After PCR amplification and sequencing of the DNAs, the DNA barcoding gap and phylogenetic cluster analysis were carried out. RESULTS: The COI sequences of the five authentic species all had obvious DNA barcoding gap. For phylogenetic cluster analysis, all of the samples were monophyletic and every species could be discriminated clearly. CONCLUSION: COI is an effective DNA barcode for the identification of the genuine Hippocampus and its adulterants, and have important significance for clinical medication safety.
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To establish the identification method for Physalis angulatae fructus Seu calyx and Physalis calyx Seu fruc-tus. Methods:Four methods including macroscopy,microscopy,TLC and HPLC were used. Results: There were some differences in macroscopic and microscopic characteristics and physicochemical identification between Physalis angulatae Fructus Seu Calyx and Phys-alis Calyx Seu Fructus. Conclusion:The established method is simple and easy,which can objectively and accurately distinguish Phys-alis angulatae Fructus Seu Calyx from Physalis Calyx Seu Fructus.
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Due to the scarcity of resources of Ziziphi spinosae semen (ZSS), many inferior goods and even adulterants are generally found in medicine markets. To strengthen the quality control, HPLC fingerprint common pattern established in this paper showed three main bioactive compounds in one chromatogram simultaneously. Principal component analysis based on DAD signals could discriminate adulterants and inferiorities. Principal component analysis indicated that all samples could be mainly regrouped into two main clusters according to the first principal component (PC1, redefined as Vicenin II) and the second principal component (PC2, redefined as zizyphusine). PC1 and PC2 could explain 91.42%of the variance. Content of zizyphusine fluctuated more greatly than that of spinosin, and this result was also confirmed by the HPTLC result. Samples with low content of jujubosides and two common adulterants could not be used equivalently with authenticated ones in clinic, while one reference standard extract could substitute the crude drug in pharmaceutical production. Giving special consideration to the well-known bioactive saponins but with low response by end absorption, a fast and cheap HPTLC method for quality control of ZSS was developed and the result obtained was commensurate well with that of HPLC analysis. Samples having similar fingerprints to HPTLC common pattern targeting at saponins could be regarded as authenticated ones. This work provided a faster and cheaper way for quality control of ZSS and laid foundation for establishing a more effective quality control method for ZSS.
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This study was aimed to identify and distinguish Metacordyceps liangshanensis recorded by the Sichuan Province Traditional Chinese Medicine Standard from its adulterants and its relative species by combining ITS and COI barcode sequences in order to study the feasibility of this new method. After extracting DNA of 28 species of Cordyceps samples, DNA were amplified and sequenced. And then, ITS and COI sequences were received. Codon-Code Aligner V3.7.1 and Mega 5.0 were used to analyze the variable site and construct the N-J tree. The results showed that the minimum ITS inter-specific K-2P distance was relatively higher than the maximum intra-specific K-2P distance. The inter-specific sequence divergence between M. liangshanensis and its adulterants exhibited high while intra-specific sequence divergence exhibited low. And COI one was the same case. N-J tree of both ITS and COI indicated that same genus belonged together and each species belonged to relatively independent branch. It was concluded that based on the ITS and COI gene, the technology of DNA barcode can be an excellent identification of M. liangshanensis, its adulterants and its relative species. It provided technical support for the further research on species molecular identification and phylogenetics of Cordyceps .
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Objective To identify Caulis Piperis Kadsurae and its adulterants. Methods Identification of Caulis Piperis Kadsurae and its adulterants was carried out by comparing its characteristic,microscopic,TLC and UV Spectra. Results There were many differences between Caulis Piperis Kadsurae and its adulterants. Conclusion The methods reported in the article could identify Caulis Piperis Kadsureae well..