Evaluation of BAYESIL for automated annotation of (1)H NMR data using limited sample volumes: application to African elephant serum

INTRODUCTION: Technological advancements enabled the analyses of limited sample volumes on (1)H NMR. Manual spectral profiling of the data is, however, complex, and timely. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of BAYESIL for automated identification and quantification of (1)H NMR spectra of limited volume samples. METHOD: Aliquots of a pooled African elephant serum sample were analyzed using standard and reduced volumes. Performance was evaluated on confidence scores, non-detects and laboratory CV. RESULTS: Of the 47 compounds detected, 28 had favorable performances. The approach could differentiate samples based on biological variation. CONCLUSIONS: BAYESIL is valuable for limited sample (1)H NMR data analyses. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11306-023-02001-1.