A novel reductive amination method with isotopic formaldehydes for the preparation of internal standard and standards for determining organosulfur compounds in garlic

Abstract

Garlic (Allium sativum) is a long-cultivated plant that is widely utilized in cooking and has been employed as a medicine for over 4000 years. In this study, we fabricated standards and internal standards (ISs) for absolute quantification via reductive amination with isotopic formaldehydes. Garlic has four abundant organosulfur compounds (OSCs): S-allylcysteine, S-allylcysteinine sulfoxide, S-methylcysteine, and S-ethylcysteine are abundant in garlic. OSCs with primary amine groups were reacted with isotopic formaldehydes to synthesize ISs and standards. Cooked and uncooked garlic samples were compared, and we utilized tandem mass spectrometry equipped with a selective reaction monitoring technique to absolutely quantify the four organosulfur compounds.

Keywords: Organosulfur compounds (OSCs); Reductive amination; S-allylcysteine (SAC); S-allylcysteinine sulfoxide (alliin); S-ethylcysteine (SEC); S-methylcysteine (SMC).