Chemical Comparison of Monk Fruit Products Processed by Different Drying Methods Using High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography Combined With Chemometric Analysis

Hui-Jie Hong; Qi Yang; Qiao Liu; Fong Leong; Xiao-Jia Chen

doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.887992

Chemical Comparison of Monk Fruit Products Processed by Different Drying Methods Using High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography Combined With Chemometric Analysis

Front Nutr. 2022 May 2:9:887992. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.887992. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Hui-Jie Hong¹, Qi Yang¹, Qiao Liu¹, Fong Leong¹, Xiao-Jia Chen^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, Macao SAR, China.
² Zhuhai UM Science and Technology Research Institute, Zhuhai, China.

Abstract

Monk fruit, also named Luo Han Guo, is the fruit of Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle) C. Jeffrey ex A. M. Lu et Z. Y. Zhang and has been used as both food and traditional Chinese medicine. Due to preservation concerns, monk fruit is usually processed by hot-air drying or using low-temperature techniques after harvest. In this study, high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method was developed for the analysis of 13 mogrosides, 1 flavonoid, and 3 sugars in monk fruit products. Then chemometric analysis was applied to investigate the chemical characteristics in the samples dried by different methods. The results showed that the contents of mogroside V, 11-oxo-mogroside V, isomogroside V, and sucrose in monk fruits dried at low temperature were much higher than those in traditional hot-air drying samples, which was also confirmed by HPTLC-scanning. These findings indicate that HPTLC combined with chemometric analysis provides a reliable tool to understand the chemical differences between the monk fruit products processed by different drying methods, which will be helpful for their quality evaluation.

Keywords: Siraitia grosvenorii; chemical characteristics; chemometric analysis; drying method; high performance thin layer chromatography; monk fruit.