Plants from the Solanaceae family are known to be sources of several nutritionally relevant steroidal glycoalkaloids (SGAs). With the aim of quantitatively investigating the occurrence of the main SGA from tomatoes, eggplants, and potatoes in various food samples and evaluating their relevance in the human diet, a rapid single-step extraction liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method was developed. Over the course of isolating several commercially unavailable SGAs from tomato products to use them as reference standards, a previously unknown derivative was detected, structurally characterized, and identified as a novel isomer of esculeoside B-1 and B-2. After validation of the method, 36 food items exclusively derived from Solanaceae plants were analyzed for their SGA contents and a specific occurrence of each alkaloid in tomato, eggplant, or potato products was revealed. This is the first study reporting quantitative data on the occurrence of esculeoside A, B-1, B-2, and iso-esculeoside B in tomato products obtained by using appropriate reference compounds rather than applying a semi-quantitative approach based on α-tomatine as a reference. Some of the analyzed tomato products contained the esculeosides in concentrations of >500 mg/kg, clearly indicating their relevance in the human diet and the need of investigating their potential bioactivities in the future.
Keywords: LC−MS/MS; esculeoside; isolation; steroidal glycoalkaloid; steroids; tomato.