A simple protocol for extraction, derivatization, and analysis of tomato leaf and fruit lipophilic metabolites using GC-MS

Abstract

Gas chromatography- mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is a highly used and well established technological platform for metabolite profiling in both plant and non-plant species. Here we describe a simple protocol for lipophilic compounds extraction and analysis from tomato fruits and leaves which is an important crop in terms of its economic and nutritional value. This is a rapid, reliable and reproducible method to detect and quantify lipophilic metabolites including fatty acids, fatty alcohols, sterols, alkanes, alkenes, and triterpenoids by GC-MS. In addition, this is a simple and convenient method for efficient comparative lipid profiling of wild type and transgenic or mutant tomato fruits.