How to gain insight into the polydispersity of tannins: A combined MS and LC study

Laetitia Mouls (1) , Virginie Hugouvieux (1) , Jean Paul Mazauric (1) , Nicolas Sommerer (1) , Gerard Mazerolles (1) , Helene Fulcrand (1)

1 SPO - Sciences Pour l'Oenologie

In the context of the potential health benefits of food polyphenols, the bioavailability of tannins (i.e. proanthocyanidins) is a major issue, which is strongly influenced by the polydispersity and the degree of polymerisation of tannins. The average degree of polymerisation (DP) of tannins is usually determined using depolymerisation methods, which do not provide any information about their polymer distribution. Moreover, it is still a challenge to characterise tannin fractions of high polydispersity and/or containing polymers of high molecular weights, due to the limit of detection of direct mass spectrometry (MS) analysis methods. In the present work, the polydispersity of several tannin fractions is investigated by two complementary methods: a MALDI-MS method and a semi-preparative sub-fractionation. Using a combination of these methods we are able to gain insight into the DP distributions of the fractions consisting of tannins of medium and high DP. Moreover combining analyses can be useful to assess and compare the DP distributions of most tannin fractions.

Mots clés: Polydispersity; Mass spectrometry; Polymer; tannin; chromatography; mass spectrum analysis

Mots clés: tanin; polyphénol; chromatographie; spectrométrie de masse

Domaines: Sciences agricoles; Alimentation et Nutrition

Laetitia Mouls, Virginie Hugouvieux, Jean Paul Mazauric, Nicolas Sommerer, Gerard Mazerolles, et al.. How to gain insight into the polydispersity of tannins: A combined MS and LC study. Food Chemistry, 2014, 165, pp.348-353. ⟨10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.05.121⟩. ⟨hal-01837705⟩