Liquid chromatographic–photodiode array mass spectrometric analysis of dietary phytoestrogens from human urine and blood

Dietary phytoestrogens have been implicated in the prevention of chronic diseases. However, it is uncertain whether the phytoestrogens or the foods associated with phytoestrogens account for the observed effects. We report here a new liquid chromatography photodiode array mass spectrometry (LC–PDA-MS) assay for the determination of nanomolar amounts of the most prominent dietary phytoestrogens (genistein, dihydrogenistein, daidzein, dihydrodaidzein, glycitein, O-desmethylangolensin, hesperetin, naringenin, quercetin, enterodiol, enterolactone) in human plasma or serum and urine. This assay was found to be suitable for the assessment of quercetin exposure in an onion intervention study by measuring urinary quercetin levels. Other successful applications of this assay in clinical and epidemiologic studies validated the developed method and confirmed previous results on the negative association between urinary isoflavone excretion and breast cancer risk.