2.1. Chemical Characterization of Pomegranate Extract with UHPLC-HRMS Analysis
Pomegranate extract was obtained by mixing a hydroalcoholic solution with different parts of the pomegranate fruit, particularly the peel, which includes the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp. The resulting solution was concentrated and spray-dried to obtain the standardized extract, which was chemically characterized by using a Thermo Ultimate RS 3000 coupled online to a Q-Exactive hybrid quadrupole Orbitrap mass spectrometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bremen, Germany), equipped with a heated electrospray ionization probe (HESI II). For RP-UHPLC analysis, a Kinetex Biphenyl 100 mm × 2.1 mm, 2.6 µm (L × I.D, particle size, Phenomenex