Determination of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in comfrey by liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Diversity of Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids in the Boraginaceae Structures, Distribution, and Biological Properties

“…Quantitative analysis of PA mixtures (e.g., from comfrey, Symphytum officinale) was carried out efficiently using electrospray liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). The method is based on HPLC coupled to an ion-trap and orbitrap MS with electrospray ionization interface [177]. Plant samples from 9 Boraginaceous species have been screened with gradient HPLC equipped with diode array and electron impact mass spectrometry [60].…”

“…The N-oxides of this class are polar, water soluble, non-volatile and thermally labile. Thus, the application of LC-MS to the analysis of PA N-oxides has become a widely applied method [64,177,199,209,210], for example, in honey samples.…”

The Use of Herbs by California Midwives

“…Comfrey has been used historically as a topical wound healing agent, which could explain why midwives use it for perineal healing (Kucera & Kucera, 2007). Importantly, comfrey should never be used internally because it contains hepatotoxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids (Liu et al, 2009). Nettle is also known as common nettle or stinging nettle.…”

The identification and quantification of bioactive compounds from the aqueous extract of comfrey root by UHPLC-DAD-HESI-MS method and its microbial activity

“…Previous studies have shown that comfrey possesses numerous beneficial properties due to the presence of many compounds with biological activity. But unfortunately, the studies have also shown that this herb is also potentially toxic due to the presence of toxins in comfrey which include pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) such as lycopsamine, echimidine and lasiocarpine, and their N-oxides [24,25]. Based on this, it can be concluded that the determination of the composition of the aqueous extract of comfrey root is of great importance.…”

“…For the identification of the composition of the aqueous extract of comfrey root, a new UHPLC-DAD--HESI-MS method was developed and applied. All compounds were identified based on retention times, UV--Vis absorption spectrum and mass spectra by matching their molecular ions obtained by LC-HESI-MS and LC-MS/MS methods with theoretical molecular weights from literature data [6,21,[25][26][27]. Figure 1 shows the UHPLC-DAD chromatogram of the aqueous extract of comfrey root at 272 nm.…”