Sample preparation

Abstract

There are two important processes in sample preparation: quenching and extraction. Quenching is the process of stopping biological reactions in a cell, and extraction is the process of obtaining metabolites from the cell. Sample quenching has been focused on stopping metabolism at a specific period to measure the true quantity of metabolites at a given time. For quenching, the following are required to measure the quantity of metabolite in a cell accurately: (1) a short timeframe during which the biological reaction is stopped, and (2) limited leakage of metabolite and reproducibility. The appropriate extraction method must be chosen considering the following: (1) cell properties, such as robustness of the cell membrane, (2) chemical properties of the target analyte, and (3) reactivity of enzymes (Putri et al., 2013). In this chapter, we introduce the sample preparation protocol for metabolomics using various specimens namely microbial, plant, animal, medical, and food samples. (See Figure 3.1 and Table 3.1.).