APPROACHES AND CHALLENGES FOR THE ANALYTICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF FOOD PRODUCTS FROM CUYO REGION (ARGENTINA) BY CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS

MONASTERIO R.; SOTO V.; FERNANDEZ M.A.; GATICA I.; GOMEZ F.; SILVA M.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; LACE 2012. The 18th Latin-American Symposium on Biotechnology, Biomedical, Biopharmaceutical and Industrial Applications of Capillary Electrophoresis and Microchip Technology; 2012

LACE

The accurate determination of marker chemical species in agricultural products presents a unique analytical challenge with high impact on diverse areas of knowledge such as health, plant physiology and economy. The international marked related to agricultural food products is exceedingly competitive, so producers need to invest in technology and research in order to improve production. Capillary electromigration techniques have emerged as a powerful tool, allowing efficient separations of a wide range of analytes present in minute samples volumes of simple and complex mixtures. The purpose of this presentation is to show the approaches and challenges of our group on capillary electromigration methods applied to the analysis of food products ant their precursors form our region ever the last years. The current state-of-the- art is evaluated, with special emphasis on the natural compounds that have allowed wine, onion products and olive oil to be considered as functional foods. Many compounds were studied, being melatonin and phenolic compounds the most representative. Melatonin is a ubiquitous molecule widely distributed in nature, produced by unicellular organisms, plants, fungi, and animals. It plays an important role in the regulation of physiological cycles, as its synthesis is highly dependent on the light/dark cycle. Its presence in higher plants was recently discovered. This fact provides the opportunity to enhance the nutraceutical properties of premium wines and monovarietal extra virgin oils. Phenolic compounds are one of the most important, numerous, and ubiquitous groups of compounds in the vegetable kingdom, being synthesized by plants during normal development and in response to biotic and abiotic stress, UV radiation, etc. Finally, it will be discussed the future role of capillary electrophoresis in the analytical characterization of food products if interest for routine analysis, classification, as well as multidisciplinary aspects of the so-colled “from soil to table”.