Analysis of potential anti-aging beverage Pru, a traditional Cuban refreshment, by desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry and FTICR tandem mass spectrometry

Md. Al Mamun ^a, Tania Valdes Gonzalez ^b, Ariful Islam ^a, Tomohito Sato ^a, Shumpei Sato ^a, Takashi K. Ito ^a, Makoto Horikawa ^a, Fumiyoshi Yamazaki ^a, Rolando Contreras Alarcon ^c, Tatsuo Ido ^a, Mitsutoshi Setou ^a,e,f*

a Department of Cellular and Molecular Anatomy, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 1-20-1, Handayama, Higashi-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 431-3192, Japan

b Theragnostic Laboratory, University Hospital Calixto Garcia, La Habana, Cuba

c Cuban National Centre of Medical Genetics, Cuba d Theragnostic Compound R&D Center, Neuroscience Research Institute, Gachon University, Republic of Korea

e International Mass Imaging Center, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, 1-20-1 Handayama, Higashi-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 431-3192, Japan

f Department of Systems Molecular Anatomy, Institute for Medical Photonics Research, Preeminent Medical Photonics Education & Research Center, 1-20-1 Handayama, Higashi-ku, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 431-3192, Japan

Aging has been established as a major risk factor for prevalent diseases and hence, the development of anti-aging medicines is of great importance. Recently, herbal fermented beverages have emerged as a promising source of potential anti-aging drug. Pru, a traditional Cuban refreshment produced by decoction and fermentation of multispecies plants with sugar, has been consumed for many years and is claimed to have multiple medicinal properties. Besides the traditional method, Pru is also manufactured industrially. The present study analyzed the major components of both traditional Pru (TP) and industrial Pru (IP) to reveal their potential application in promoting the health span. We performed desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) and acquired mass spectra by scanning over the 50–1200 m/z range in both positive and negative ion modes. Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) was performed for validating the compound assignments. Three important compounds were identified by comparing the MS and MS/MS spectra with reported literature and the online database. One of the identified compounds, gluconic acid, was found to be the most abundant shared metabolite between TP and IP whereas the other two compounds, magnoflorine and levan were exclusively detected in TP. The present study is the first report of component profiling in Cuban traditional and industrial Pru using DESI-MS and FTICR MS/MS, and reveals the potential application of Pru as a health-promoting agent.

Keywords: Anti-aging; Cuban traditional beverage; DESI-MS; FTICR MS/MS; Pru

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfda.2019.05.004.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1021949819300559)