Simultaneous direct determination of 15 glucosinolates in eight Brassica species by UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS

•Glucosinolates (GLS) in Brassica species were quantified by HR-HPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS.•GLS profiling was performed for eight Brassica species.•The highest total GLS content were observed in cabbage samples.•The content of minor GLS helped in categorization of Brassica species. Glucosinolates (GLS) have been reported to have significant anti-oxidative, antimicrobial, and anti-cancer activities. The current study was aimed to develop an analytical method for glucosinolate quantitation in eight Brassica species from Gwangju, Republic of Korea. For this purpose the UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS technique was used and validated for optimal extraction conditions, detection and quantitation limits, linearity, precision, and accuracy. According to the results of GLS profiling, the total GLS concentration decreased in the order of cabbage > broccoli > cauliflower > mustard > kimchi cabbage > young radish ∼ kale. All Brassica species contained glucoerucin (GER) and glucobrassicin (GBR) as major GLS with the high levels in cabbage (5.913 μM/g) and broccoli (1.723 μM/g), respectively. The contents of minor GLS were species-dependent, and could therefore be used for Brassica species classification.