Chromatography and Agriculture: Previewing our Q&As and Technical Content

Welcome to our “Advancing Agriculture for Future Generations” content series, a joint series from LCGC International and Spectroscopy.

We are happy to share with you approximately 15 pieces of content, all of which showcase the latest chromatographic research in agriculture. Our content is divided into three categories – news articles, interviews, and technical articles. Here, we provide you with a sneak peek about what to expect regarding our upcoming interviews and peer-reviewed and featured articles.

Our first Q&A explores the small-molecule composition of Voacanga africana seeds using LADI-MS. In this written interview, we sit down with Rabi Ann Musah, who is a professor at the University of Albany, State University of New York, to ask her about her research in exploring the various ways chromatography can help protect seed viability through optimizing the isolation of specific compounds.

Our second Q&A comes courtesy of our senior technical editor Jerome Workman, Jr., who conducted a Q&A with Mary Ellen McNally about her work using mass spectrometry to solve problems in the agricultural industry.

Our technical articles will cover how various chromatographic techniques are advancing the agriculture industry. In one of these articles titled, “New Technologies That Accelerate Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP) Sample Preparation,” the authors explain why accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) is widely viewed as a better alternative to GC–MS when analyzing persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and how new technological developments offer many benefits and accelerate the POP sample preparation processes. Another article titled, “Comparing the Chemical Profiles of Plant-Based and Traditional Meats Using GC–MS-Based Metabolomics,” describes an untargeted gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS)-based metabolomics approach that compares the chemical profiles of a popular plant-based meat alternative and grass-fed ground beef using a GC system coupled to a GC–MS device.

We also look at how HPLC and UHPLC is furthering the agriculture industry. In a peer-reviewed article titled, “Multi-Active Method (MAM) for the Analysis of Agriculture Product Technical Ingredients and Formulated Products,” presents how HPLC and UHPLC was used to analyze more than 70 active agricultural ingredients.

Our content series is designed to spotlight the most recent work in this field. It is important to note that we only picked a handful of studies for this content series; there is much more research currently being undertaken in this field. However, our objective is to provide a snapshot into how chromatographers are contributing to the advancement of agriculture, and the studies we selected accomplish that goal.