Profiling and quantification of isoflavones in soymilk from soy protein isolate using extracted ion chromatography and positive ion fragmentation techniques

Dietary supplements on soy based foods and beverages are increasingly gaining prominence all over the world. In this study, liquid chromatography coupled with positive electrospray ionisation tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) and diode array detection was used for the quantitation and characterisation of isoflavones in fermented and unfermented soymilk made from soy protein isolate SUPRO 590. Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis Bb12 was used for the fermentation of soymilk. The isoflavones were found to produce characteristic radical ions as well as molecules of H2O, CO2, a sugar unit, and an alcohol through collision-induced fragmentation. Product ion fragments revealed unique fragmentation pathways for each isoflavone compound. Characteristic fragmentation of different isoflavones were unequivocally identified and differentiated. The occurrence of aldehydes such as pentanal, ethanal and methanal was shown to be specifically linked with isoflavone aglycones, daidzein, genistein and glycitein, respectively. Main glycosides such as genistin, daidzin and glycitin as well as the acetyl-, and malonyl forms also showed respective aglycone ions in their spectra fragmentation. Thus positive ion fragmentation was important in the absolute confirmation of isoflavones and to reveal the occurrence of other related compounds such as aldehydes in soymilk.