Recently, the high analytical power provided by the new HRMS instruments (working in the MS or MS/MS mode, stand alone or hyphenated with separation techniques) is making more feasible the characterization of plant secondary metabolites. In this regard, HRMS-based techniques are becoming the technique of choice, since they are capable of answering many questions regarding the analytical characterization of secondary metabolites, usually found in very complex matrices, including their structural elucidation and quantification in a very fast and sensitive way. In this manuscript we will provide a critical and updated revision of this topic covering the works published in the last 4 years (2015–2018), including the different configurations in which HRMS may be used (stand alone or hyphenated), the data treatment, the strategies for the identification of unknown metabolites, the current software for structure elucidation, as well as the last trends and future outlooks in this hot area of research.

This research was supported by COOPA20145, project from CSIC (Programa de Cooperación Científica para el Desarrollo “i-COOP+"). G.A.-R. would like to acknowledge the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for a “Juan de la Cierva” postdoctoral grant. The authors also thank the support from the AGL2017-89417-R project.

Peer reviewed