The amino acid profile of fresh products can indicate their nutritional value and flavor characteristics, therefore, many breeding projects around the world focus on these traits. Study the free amino acid content of fresh agricultural products and understand their effects on flavor (fresh taste is L-glutamic acid, sweet taste is L-glycine, L-alanine, and proline) and human health (it has been proven that branched chain amino acids can accelerate muscle injury and recovery from fatigue after exercise).

In this application article, a simple LC/MS/MS method for analyzing the content of free amino acids in fresh agricultural products is described in detail. This method has a simple sample preparation process, and free amino acids can be directly injected for analysis without the need for derivatization.

The internal method of Syngenta was transferred to PerkinElmer QSight 220 without any modifications, and can be successfully used to analyze non derivatized free amino acids in tomato homogenates. All compound detections have good selectivity and sensitivity. This method can be used to determine the content of undifferentiated amino acids in tomato homogenate. The results showed that all amino acids in the sample exhibited good linearity within the expected concentration range.