Quality Evaluation of Dietary Supplements for Weight Loss Based on Garcinia cambogia

Abstract

Food supplements of plant origin for weight control are increasingly being demanded by consumers as a way to promote good health. Among them, those based on Garcinia cambogia (GCFS) are widely commercialized considering their bioactive properties, mainly due to (-)-hydroxycitric acid ((-)-HCA). However, recently, controversy has arisen over their safety; thus, further research and continuous monitoring of their composition is required. Hence, in this work, a multi-analytical approach was followed to determine not only (-)-HCA but also other constituents of 18 GCFS, which could be used as quality markers to detect fraudulent practices in these samples. Discrepancies between the declared (-)-HCA content and that experimentally determined were detected by LC-UV in 33% of the samples. Moreover, GC-MS analyses of GCFS allowed the detection of different compounds not present in G. cambogia fruits and not declared on supplement labels, probably related to heat exposure or to the addition of excipients or other extracts. This multi-analytical methodology is shown to be advantageous to address different fraudulent practices affecting the quality of these supplements.

Keywords: (-)-hydroxycitric acid; Garcinia cambogia; Garcinia gummi-gutta; food supplements; gas chromatography–mass spectrometry; liquid chromatography.

Figure 1

Dried G. cambogia chromatograms obtained for GC1 extract by LC–UV (A) and GC–MS (B). Peak assignations shown in Table 1. * Unknown. I.S.: Internal standard.

Figure 1

Dried G. cambogia chromatograms obtained for GC1 extract by LC–UV (A) and GC–MS (B). Peak assignations shown in Table 1. * Unknown. I.S.: Internal standard.

Figure 2

GC–MS chromatograms obtained for samples GCFS3 (A), GCFS8 (B), and GCFS9 (C). Peak assignations shown in Table 3 and Table 4. * Artifact.