Profiling the chlorogenic acids of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) from China

The leaves, stem and root of sweet potato cultivated in China have been analysed qualitatively for chlorogenic acids by structure-diagnostic LC–MS3. Chlorogenic acids were not detected in the root. Caffeoylquinic acids were quantitatively the major subgroup of chlorogenic acids detected in the stem and the only subgroup detected in the leaves. This subgroup was dominated by 5-caffeoylquinic acid. The stem also contained three feruloylquinic acids, 3,5- and 4,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, and small amounts of at least four caffeoyl-feruloylquinic acids. This is the first report of feruloylquinic and caffeoyl-feruloylquinic acids from sweet potato. Two chemically unrelated and coeluting substances with the same molecular mass (Mr = 530) extracted from the Chinese sweet potato interfered with the characterisation of the caffeoyl-feruloylquinic acids. At least five caffeoyl-feruloylquinic acids were detected in the peel of sweet potato cultivated in Tanzania that lacked these interfering substances.