Flavonoids occupy the largest family
of natural products and possess
a broad spectrum of health benefits. Their metabolites are sometimes
the truly effective molecules in vivo. It is still
challenging, however, to unambiguously identify flavonoid metabolites
using conventional LC–MS/MS. Herein, we aimed to pursue auxiliary
structural clues to m/z values in
both MS1 and MS2 spectra through LC coupled
to three-dimensional MS (LC–3D MS). MS1, as the
first dimension, was in charge of suggesting theoretical molecular
formulas, MS2, the as second dimension, was responsible
for offering substructures, and exactly, online energy-resolved MS
(ER-MS), as the third dimension, provided optimal collision energies
(OCEs) that reflected the linkage manners among the substructures.
Metabolic characterization of a natural sweet taste modulator, namely,
(R)-7,3′-dihydroxy-4′-methoxy-8-methylflavane
(DHMMF), was conducted as a proof-of-concept. Extensive efforts, such
as full MS1 and MS2 scans on IT-TOF-MS and predictive
selected-reaction monitoring mode on Qtrap-MS, were made for in-depth
metabolite mining. Seventeen metabolites (M1–M17) were captured from DHMMF-treated biological samples,
including 17 (M1–M17), 10 (M4–M9, M11, M13, M14, and M16), and 2 (M5 and M10) metabolites from urine, plasma, and feces, respectively. Their
structures were configured by integrating MS1, MS2, and OCE information. Except M10, all metabolites were
new compounds. LC–MS/MS-guided chromatographic purification
yielded three glucuronyl-conjugated metabolites (M5, M8, and M11), and NMR spectroscopic assays consolidated
the structures transmitted from LC–3D MS. Demethylation, glucuronidation,
and sulfation occurred as the primary metabolic pathways of DHMMF.
Above all, LC–3D MS bridged LC–MS/MS from putatively
structural annotation toward confidence-enhanced identification, beyond
the metabolite characterization of flavonoids.