Simultaneous Determination of Black Tea-Derived Catechins and Theaflavins in Tissues of Tea Consuming Animals Using Ultra-Performance Liquid-Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 10; p. e0163498
• Main Authors: Ganguly, Souradipta, G, Taposh Kumar, Mantha, Sudarshan, Panda, Koustubh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 03.10.2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Administration, Oral; Animal behavior; Animals; Antioxidants - chemistry; Antioxidants - therapeutic use; Biflavonoids - blood; Biflavonoids - chemistry; Biflavonoids - isolation & purification; Bioavailability; Biology and Life Sciences; Black tea; Body fluids; Catechin; Catechin - blood; Catechin - chemistry; Catechin - isolation & purification; Chromatography; Chromatography, Liquid; Computational fluid dynamics; Damage prevention; Epidemiology; Formulations; Guinea Pigs; Health aspects; Humans; In vivo methods and tests; Kidneys; Liquid chromatography; Lungs; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Mathematical analysis; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metabolites; Mitigation; Nutrition; Oral administration; Physical Sciences; Polyphenols; Polyphenols - blood; Polyphenols - chemistry; Polyphenols - isolation & purification; Quantitation; Research and Analysis Methods; Spectroscopy; Tandem Mass Spectrometry; Tea; Tea (Beverage); Tea - chemistry; Tea - metabolism; Theaflavins; Tissues; Urine
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0163498

The bioavailability, tissue distribution and metabolic fate of the major tea polyphenols, catechins and theaflavins as well as their gallated derivatives are yet to be precisely elucidated on a single identification platform for assessment of their relative bioefficacy in vivo. This is primarily due to the lack of suitable analytical tools for their simultaneous determination especially in an in vivo setting, which continues to constrain the evaluation of their relative health beneficiary potential and therefore prospective therapeutic application. Herein, we report a rapid and sensitive Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) based method for the simultaneous determination of the major catechins and theaflavins in black tea infusions as well as in different vital tissues and body fluids of tea-consuming guinea pigs. This method allowed efficient separation of all polyphenols within seven minutes of chromatographic run and had a lower limit of quantification (LLOQ) of ~5 ng/ml. Using this method, almost all bioactive catechins and theaflavins could be simultaneously detected in the plasma of guinea pigs orally administered 5% black tea for 14 days. Our method could further detect the majority of these polyphenols in the lung and kidney as well as identify the major catechin metabolites in the urine of the tea-consuming animals. Overall, our study presents a novel tool for simultaneous detection and quantitation of both catechins and theaflavins in a single detection platform that could potentially enable precise elucidation of their relative bioavailability and bioefficacy as well as true health beneficiary potential in vivo. Such information would ultimately facilitate the accurate designing of therapeutic strategies utilizing high efficacy formulations of tea polyphenols for effective mitigation of oxidative damage and inflammation in humans as well as prevention of associated diseases.