Identification of chemical markers
in food additives and dietary
supplements is crucial for quantitative assessment and standardization
of their quality and efficacy. Arthrospira platensis, formerly Spirulina platensis and
known colloquially as spirulina, has been widely investigated for
its various biological effects, including anti-inflammation, antihypertension,
antioxidant, and antiatherosclerosis. In this study, we utilized an
approach involving a combination of bioassay-guided fractionation,
synthesis, mass spectral molecular networking, principal component
analysis (PCA), and correlation analysis to identify measurable chemical
markers in spirulina products that can be used to evaluate the efficacy
of commercial products in downregulating the expression level of the
proinflammatory cytokines, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6
(IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα). Consequently,
we found that the apocarotenoids 3-hydroxy-β-ionone (1) and apo-13-zeaxanthinones (2a/2b) significantly repressed
expression of IL-1β (9.5 ± 1.5 and 28.7 ± 0.6%, respectively)
and IL-6 (10.1 ± 0.7 and 6.1 ± 0.4%, respectively) at 10
μg/mL (p < 0.05) using RAW 264.7 mouse macrophages.
Notably, this is the first report of the isolation of these apocarotenoids
from spirulina and their in vitro anti-inflammatory properties. Finally,
we propose the use of our approach as a convenient way to establish
markers in other dietary supplements.