Tacamaque resins are South American resins that were used as medications until the end of the 19^th century. Although they are still used in traditional medicine in South America [1], they are no longer employed in Europe. The Musée François Tillequin - Collection de Matière Médicale hosts nowadays a collection of these resins collected over the years. They were poorly described and classified principally on their visual and organoleptic aspects, not on their chemical composition, leading to the sale of resins from different origins using the same name.



In this study, the molecular fingerprinting of resin samples will be carried out using a combination of different modern analytical methods, in order to attempt to correlate the origin of these different resins and their chemical composition, and to classify them. In addition, a comparison with fresh resin samples from French Guiana was carried out to provide a better understanding of the resin chemical content and its ageing.

 

Various MS approaches were implemented to annotate as many compounds as possible. Several techniques were combined: LC-HRMS; direct introduction in ESI, APPI and APCI by FT-ICR; GC-MS; HS-GC-MS and NMR. All these data were then analyzed by PCA and molecular networks to attempt classifying tacamaque resins and enlighten any misidentifications made during the visual/organoleptic classification initially made by Pr. G. Guibourt in the 19^th century. Our multi-instrumental approach showed that the best techniques for resin classification remain those enabling the identification of volatile molecules and triterpenes, such as GC-MS and HS-GC-MS, together with NMR.

 

[1] Rayane da Cruz Albino et al., ‘Amazonian Medicinal Smokes: Chemical Analysis of Burseraceae Pitch (Breu) Oleoresin Smokes and Insights into Their Use on Headache’, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 276 (2021)