**2. Materials and Methods**

## *2.1. Plant Material, Reagents, and Standards*

A total of 34 commercially packed spices and herbs (Table 1; 200–500 g each spice and herb from at least three different brands) were obtained from retail outlets in Seoul, Korea. The spice and herb samples of different brands were mixed in equal proportions (200–300 g total) to make a representative sample, ground into a fine powder using a 7010HG laboratory blender (Waring Commercial, Torrington, CT, USA), placed into an airtight container, and stored at room temperature. The fatty acid standard mix (37 Component FAME Mix, CRM47885) was obtained from Merck Ltd., Seoul, Korea. The organic solvents used for the extraction of lipids were of high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) grade, obtained from Samchun Chemical Co., Ltd., Seoul, Korea.

#### *2.2. Extraction of Crude Lipid Compounds*

The crude lipids were extracted by using the previous method [12,13] with minor modification. Briefly, 0.6 g dehydrated and powdered spices and herb samples were precisely weighed and transferred to a 50 mL glass tube. In each tube, 150 mg sodium ascorbate and 22 mL (isopropyl alcohol/cyclohexane, 10:12, *v*/*v*) containing 0.075% butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT: *w*/*v*; antioxidant) were added, and the contents were subjected to bath sonication (JAC-2010; 300 w, 60 Hz, for 12 min) for efficient disintegration and complete extraction, followed by 15 h shaking (200 RPM at 22 ◦C) in a rotary shaker. Contents were centrifuged at 7000× *g* (12 min at 4 ◦C). The supernatant was collected, and pellets were extracted again with 30 mL cyclohexane. Supernatants from both extractions were pooled (total volume of ~50 mL) and partitioned with an equal volume of 1 M of sodium chloride (NaCl). The upper cyclohexane phase containing crude lipids were collected,

filtered over anhydrous sodium sulfate, transferred to a 250-mL round-bottom flask, and vacuum-dried in a rotary evaporator at 30 ◦C. The crude lipids were recovered into 3 mL methanol/dichloromethane (DCM) (1:3, *v*/*v*) containing 0.1% BHT, transferred to a 5 mL glass vial fitted with a Teflon-lined screw cap, and stored at −20 ◦C. One milliliter of sample was used to prepare fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs).

**Table 1.** List of spices and herbs used in the present investigation (arranged according to botanical name).

