Rapid Identification of Different Cinnamon Using Coated Direct Inlet Probe Coupled with Atmospheric-Pressure Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry

This study demonstrates a rapid method for the identification of volatile and endogenous compounds in cinnamon through a coated direct intracavity probe (CDIP) coupled to the atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) source for mass spectrometry direct injection. Sixty-seven molecular ions were screened from quadrupole-time-of-flight (Q-ToF) mass spectrometer data as fingerprint ions of four varieties of cinnamons. Electronic nose and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) as comparisons were used to analyze the cinnamons. The principal component analysis (PCA) results showed that both GC-MS and CDIP-APCI-Q-ToF method could be used to identify different kinds of cinnamons effectively. Part of the fingerprint ions obtained via CDIP-APCI-Q-ToF could be matched to the compounds detected by GC-MS. These findings indicated that CDIP-APCI-Q-ToF direct injection considerably shortened sample analysis time and achieved a faster, more efficient, and sensitive identification of different varieties of cinnamons.