Simultaneous quantification and quality control of flavor and functional phytochemicals in Rosa roxburghii fruit through multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry

As a functional food, Rosa roxburghii fruit contains numerous phytochemicals. Nevertheless, the fresh Rosa roxburghii fruit has low acceptance for direct consumption due to its sour and astringent taste. And the challenges faced by the high-quality development and industrial promotion of Rosa roxburghii fruit include its efficient quality control methods and the correlation analysis of its flavor and functional phytochemicals. Herein, we presented an integrated analytical approach to quantitatively analyze flavor and functional phytochemicals in Rosa roxburghii fruit by the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode of UHPLC-QQQ-MS/MS. The proposed method could be achieved within 9 min of running time, and displayed satisfactory linearity, sensitivity, precision, accuracy, and stability. According to analytical results, the distribution of 19 flavors and functional components of Rosa roxburghii fruit with different stages of maturity was clarified. Also, it was surprisingly found that malic acid and catechin were the astringent substances, and roxburic acid was the typical functional component of Rosa roxburghii fruit. Overall, the present work provided a rapid and sensitive analysis approach, which could be useful not only for quality control of Rosa roxburghii fruit, but also for dynamic changes and safety assessment of flavor and functional phytochemicals in Rosa roxburghii fruit at different maturity stages.