Differentiating organic and conventional sage by chromatographic and mass spectrometry flow injection fingerprints combined with principal component analysis.

High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and flow injection electrospray ionization with ion trap mass spectrometry (FIMS) fingerprints combined with principal component analysis (PCA) were examined for their potential in differentiating commercial organic and conventional sage samples. The individual components in the sage samples were also characterized with an ultraperformance liquid chromatograph with a quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometer (UPLC Q-TOF MS). The results suggested that both HPLC and FIMS fingerprints combined with PCA could differentiate organic and conventional sage samples effectively. FIMS may serve as a quick test capable of distinguishing organic and conventional sages in 1 min and could potentially be developed for high-throughput applications, whereas HPLC fingerprints could provide more chemical composition information with a longer analytical time.