{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,5]],"date-time":"2026-05-05T02:21:25Z","timestamp":1777947685201,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"14","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,17]],"date-time":"2025-07-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1752710400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100011091","name":"Belgian Federal Public Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["RF22-6360"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RF22-6360"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100011091","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Molecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Mass spectrometric (MS) fingerprinting coupled with chemometrics for the detection of plants in plant mixtures is sparsely researched. This paper aims to check its value for herbal adulteration concerning plants with slimming as an indication. Moreover, it is among the first to exploit the full three-dimensional dataset (i.e., time \u00d7 intensity \u00d7 mass) obtained with liquid chromatography hyphenated with MS for herbal fingerprinting purposes. The MS parameters were optimized to achieve highly specific fingerprints. Trituration\u2019s (total 55), blanks (total 11) and reference plants were injected in the MS system to generate the dataset. The dataset was complex and humongous, necessitating the application of compression techniques. After compression, Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) was performed to generate models validated for accuracy using cross-validation and an external test set. Confusion matrices were constructed to provide insight into the modeling predictions. A complimentary evaluation between data obtained using a previously developed Diode Array Detection (DAD) method and the MS data was performed by data fusion techniques and newly generated models. The fused dataset models were comparable to MS models. For ease of application, MS modeling was deemed to be superior. The future market studies would adopt MS modeling as the preferred choice. A proof of concept was carried out on 10 real-life samples obtained from illegal sources. The results indicated the need for stronger monitoring of (illegal) plant food supplements entering the market, especially via the internet.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules30143001","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,17]],"date-time":"2025-07-17T10:33:47Z","timestamp":1752748427000},"page":"3001","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Mass Spectrometric Fingerprinting to Detect Fraud and Herbal Adulteration in Plant Food Supplements"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"30","author":[{"given":"Surbhi","family":"Ranjan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Medicines and Health Products, Sciensano, J. Wytsmanstraat 14, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium"},{"name":"Department of Pharmaceutical & Pharmacological Sciences, Pharmaceutical Analysis, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, O&N2, PB 923, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tanika","family":"Van Mulders","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Platform Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry, J. Wytsmanstraat 14, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Koen","family":"De Cremer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Platform Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry, J. Wytsmanstraat 14, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4545-2989","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Erwin","family":"Adams","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pharmaceutical & Pharmacological Sciences, Pharmaceutical Analysis, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, O&N2, PB 923, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6980-6684","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eric","family":"Deconinck","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Section of Medicines and Health Products, Sciensano, J. Wytsmanstraat 14, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ranjan, S., Adams, E., and Deconinck, E. (2023). 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