Over time Nofima Mat has built up considerable competence in characterising and measuring the content of different plant substances (metabolites) in fruit, berries and vegetables, including polyphenols (flavonoids and others), glucosinolates, terpenes, phytosterols and carotinoids, as well as various vitamins. Secondary plant substances occur in their thousands and are characterised by their amazing diversity, many of them being reactive and unstable, which complicates the analyses.
We have also developed or tested many different rapid analysis methods for non-destructive measurement of the constituents and degree of maturity of fresh plant products.
The most important tools we use for metabolite analysis are extraction and separation technology. Separation of metabolites in a complex sample is done with fluid (HPLC) and gas chromatography (GC) in connection with various types of detectors such as mass spectrometry (MS) as well as UV, Vis, fluorescence, TI and electrochemical detectors. Using these we can determine the quantity and to a certain degree the structure of molecules.
