Polyphenolic profile of butterhead lettuce cultivar by ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography coupled online to UV–visible spectrophotometry and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Abstract In the present study, the butterhead lettuce cultivar was analyzed by ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled online to diode array detection (DAD), electrospray ionization (ESI) and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (QToF/MS) in the positive and negative ion mode in order to characterize its polyphenolic profile for the first time. The instrument acquisition mode MS E was used to collect automatic and simultaneous information of exact mass at high and low collision energies of precursor ions as well as other ions produced as a result of their fragmentation. One hundred eleven phenolic compounds were identified in the acidified hydromethanolic extract of freeze-dried leaves of butterhead lettuce cultivar: 40 hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives, 21 hydroxybenzoic acid derivatives, 2 hydroxyphenylacetic acid derivatives, 18 flavonols, 9 flavones, one flavanone, 7 coumarins, one hydrolysable tannin and 12 lignans. Forty-seven of these compounds have been tentatively identified for the first time in lettuce.