Introduction
Pink pepper is a worldwide used spice that corresponds to the berries of two species, Schinus terebinthifolia Raddi or S. molle L. (Anacardiaceae). Toxic and allergic reactions by ingestion or contact with these plants were reported, and classical in vitro studies have highlighted the cytotoxic properties of apolar extracts from the fruits.
Objectives
Perform a non-targeted screening of 11 pink pepper samples for the detection and identification of individual cytotoxic substances.
Methods
After reversed-phase high-performance thin-layer chromatography (RP-HPTLC) separation of the extracts and multi-imaging (UV/Vis/FLD), cytotoxic compounds were detected by bioluminescence reduction from luciferase reporter cells (HEK 293 T-CMV-ELuc) applied directly on the adsorbent surface, followed by elution of detected cytotoxic substance into atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization high-resolution mass spectrometry (APCI-HRMS).
Results
Separations for mid-polar and non-polar fruit extracts demonstrated the selectivity of the method to different substance classes. One cytotoxic substance zone was tentatively assigned as moronic acid, a pentacyclic triterpenoid acid.
Conclusion
The developed non-targeted hyphenated RP-HPTLC–UV/Vis/FLD–bioluminescent cytotoxicity bioassay–FIA–APCI-HRMS method was successfully demonstrated for cytotoxicity screening (bioprofiling) and respective cytotoxin assignment.