Cyclopia species are used for the production of honeybush tea and food ingredient extracts associated with many health benefits. A species-specific high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for Cyclopia maculata, developed and validated, allowed quantification of the major compounds in extracts from "unfermented" and fermented C. maculata. Two xanthones were tentatively identified for the first time in a Cyclopia species, whereas an additional four compounds were tentatively identified for the first time in C. maculata. "Fermentation" (oxidation) decreased the content of all compounds, with the exception of vicenin-2. Similarity analysis of the chromatographic fingerprints of unfermented C. maculata aqueous extracts showed extremely low variation (r ≥ 0.97) between samples. Some differences between wild-harvested and cultivated seedling plants were, however, demonstrated using principal component analysis. Quantitative data of selected compounds confirmed the low level of variation, making this Cyclopia species ideal for the production of standardized food ingredient extracts.
Keywords: HPLC-DAD; LC-MS; PCA; chromatographic fingerprint analysis; food ingredient extract; herbal tea; honeybush; method development; phenolic compounds; similarity analysis.