Simultaneous quantification of eleven bioactive phenolic compounds in pigeon pea natural resources and in vitro cultures by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-QqQ-MS/MS)

Abstract Bioactive phenolics primarily contribute to versatile health benefits of pigeon pea. For the first time, an UPLC-QqQ-MS/MS method was developed for the quantitative analysis of eleven bioactive phenolic compounds in pigeon pea natural resources (seeds, leaves, and roots) and in vitro cultures (calli and hairy roots). The proposed method could be achieved within 6 min of running time, and displayed the satisfactory linearity, sensitivity, precision, accuracy, and stability. According to analytical results, the distribution of eleven target compounds in different organs of pigeon pea was clarified. Also, it was surprisingly found that pigeon pea in vitro cultures exhibited superiority in contents of genistin and cajaninstilbene acid as compared with natural resources. Overall, the present work provided a rapid and sensitive analysis approach, which could be useful not only for quality control of pigeon pea natural resources, but also for applicability and safety evaluation of pigeon pea in vitro cultures.