Novel liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization mass spectrometry method for the quantification in human urine of microbial aromatic acid metabolites derived from dietary polyphenols

An HPLC–ESI-MS–MS method was developed to quantify in human urine fourteen aromatic acids known as metabolites of dietary polyphenols. These metabolites were determined simultaneously in a single 20-min chromatographic analysis with multiple reaction monitoring detection. The inter- and intra-day precisions, calculated from quality control samples were 8.8 and 5.3%, respectively, and the mean accuracy was 2.3%. The method was tested on urine samples collected from one healthy volunteer who consumed a polyphenol-rich diet for 3 days. Increased levels of several aromatic acid metabolites were observed, demonstrating that the method can be used to detect changes in the excretion of microbial metabolites induced by the consumption of polyphenol-containing foods in humans.