Research Article
LC-MS/MS Identification of a Bromelain Peptide Biomarker from Ananas comosus Merr
Table 1
Bromelain identity and quality control data.
| Item profile | Specification | Result | Method |
| Botanical-pineapple | Ananas sp. | Ananas comosus | Visual | Plant parts used | Mature plant stem | Mature plant stem | Visual | Botanical extract | Bromelain | Bromelain | Maltodextrin diluent | Identification | Standard Match (Sigma) | Conforms to standard | HPLC* | Activity, potency | ≥2400 GDU**/gram | 2931 GDU/gram | GDU Assay | Solvent Residues | LOQ‡ Limits USP | | | Methanol | 1000 ppm | 3000 ppm | <1000 ppm | Gas chromatography | Ethanol | 1000 ppm | 5000 ppm | <1000 ppm
| Gas chromatography
| Diethyl ether | 2 ppm | 5000 ppm | <2.0 ppm | Gas chromatography
| Acetone
| 50 ppm | 5000 ppm | <50 ppm | Gas chromatography
| 2-Propanol
| 200 ppm | 5000 ppm | <1200 ppm | Gas chromatography | Dichloromethane
| 2 ppm | 600 ppm | <2.0 ppm | Gas chromatography
| n-Hexane (C6)
| 2 ppm | 290 ppm | <2.0 ppm
| Gas chromatography
| Ethyl acetate | 20 ppm | 5000 ppm | <20.0 ppm | Gas chromatography
| Xylenes (0, M, P, EB) | 1 ppm | 2170 ppm | ≤1.0 ppm | Gas chromatography | Microbial Profile | (CFU/gm) | (CFU/gm)
| | Total mold and yeast
| ≤300/gram
| 160
| MLP° USP 27 | E. coli | Negative
| Negative
| MLP USP 27 | Salmonella | Negative | Negative
| MLP USP 27
| Enterobacteriaceae | ≤10 CFU/gram | <10/gram
| MLP USP 27 | S. aureus | Negative | Negative
| MLP USP 27
| P. aeruginosa | Negative | Negative | MLP USP 27 | Aflatoxin Profile (B1,B2,G1,G2) | Aflatoxins ≤20 ppb | Negative | HPLC | Heavy metal profile | | | | Arsenic
| ≤3 ppm | <0.50 ± 0.5 ppm | ICP-MS!
| Lead
| ≤10 ppm | 0.08 ± 0.05 ppm | ICP-MS
| Cadmium
| ≤3 ppm | <0.25 ± 0.25 ppm | ICP-MS
| Mercury | ≤2 ppm | <0.10 ± 0.1 ppm | ICP-MS |
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HPLC: high-performance liquid chromatography, **GDU’s: gelatin dissolving units; LOQ‡: limit of quantification, °microbial limit tests; ! ICP-MS: inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry; #CDFA: California Department of Food and Agriculture.
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