*2.3. Preparation of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAMEs)*

The crude lipids extracted from the spices and herb samples were used to prepare the FAMEs, following the previously optimized method [14] with minor modification. Briefly, 1 mL of a crude lipids sample was transferred into a 5 mL glass vial fitted with a Teflon-lined screw cap. Contents were evaporated to dryness using a rotary evaporator at 30 ◦C. After evaporation, 3 mL of anhydrous methanolic-HCl (methanol/acetyl chloride, 95:5, *v*/*v*) was added and incubated for 2 h at 55 ◦C in a heat block. Samples were cooled in ice, and FAMEs were sequentially washed with 1M NaCl and 2% sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) and recovered in 4 mL hexane. A pinch of anhydrous sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) was added to the recovered sample (hexane) to absorb the traces of water. One milliliter of sample was filtered through a 0.45 μm PTFE syringe filter and transferred to a 1.5 mL autosampler vial for GC-FID and GC-MS analysis.

#### *2.4. GC-FID and GC-MS Analysis of FAMEs*

FAMEs were quantitatively analyzed with GC (Agilent 7890B, Agilent Technologies Canada, Inc., Mississauga, ON, Canada) equipped with an autoinjector, an FID, and an SP-2560 capillary column (100 m, 0.20 μm film thickness, 0.25 mm ID; Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany). The injector and the detectors were maintained at 250 ◦C and 260 ◦C, respectively. The inlet flow was 2 mL/min with a constant pressure of 54 psi. The FID parameters of hydrogen (H2) fuel flow, airflow, and make flow (nitrogen, N2) were set to 30, 400, and 25 mL/min, respectively. The column oven temperature was kept at 140 ◦C for 5 min, then progressively increased to 240 ◦C for 25 min (linear temperature program 4 ◦C/min and held at 240 ◦C for 15 min [15]. The FAMEs were precisely identified by comparing them with the retention time with authentic standards. For a more accurate qualitative analysis, the mass spectra were also recorded using a GC-MS system (QP2010 SE; Shimadzu, Kyoto, Japan), following the optimized GC-FID analysis thermal program. The identity of FAMEs was confirmed by comparing their fragmentation pattern with authentic standards, and also by using the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST; U.S. Department of Commerce, Gaithersburg, MD, USA) mass spectrum database (NIST08 and NIST08s).
