The Identification of Vitamin E Homologues in Medicinal Plant Samples Using ESI(+)-LC-MS3

Abstract

The aim of this study was to elucidate the presence of vitamin E homologues in medicinal plants. To identify various homologues in the matrix of medicinal plant samples, a method for simultaneous determination was developed using ESI(+)-LC-MS3. A complete separation of each homologue was achieved within 20 min using a PFP column and an isocratic elution system of water/methanol (10:90, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min. The ESI-MS condition for each homologue was optimized, and the m/z value and the fragmentation pathway of each homologue were summarized. This LC-MS3 method made it possible to detect the homologues without the effect of matrix; therefore, high sensitive analysis was established, and then, the MS3 makes it possible to extract from plants with methanol only. The LC-MS3 method was applied to identify the eight vitamin E homologues in 11 medicinal plants.

New insights regarding tocopherols in Arabica and Robusta species coffee beans: RP-UPLC-ESI/MSn and NP-HPLC/FLD study

“…In order to improve selectivity of the methods, the MS 3 mode has been introduced and used in the current study. As it was reported by Inoue et al (2012), the MS 3 analysis makes it possible to avoid the matrix effect comparing to MS 2 . On the RP-UPLC-ESI/MS 3 spectrum (Fig.…”

“…However, a complete separation between the b-T and g-T can be provided by the use of the column filled with the pentafluorophenyl stationary phase (Grebenstein and Frank, 2012;Inoue et al, 2012). Because of the numerous compounds present in the coffee matrix a high background was observed in the MS 2 sample spectrum (data not shown).…”

“…The NP-HPLC method provides a considerably better separation between b-T and g-T (Manzi et al, 1996). However, recent research papers (Gó rnaś et al, 2014b;Grebenstein and Frank, 2012;Inoue et al, 2012) describe the use of a column filled with pentafluorophenyl (PFP) groups bound to the silica surface stationary phase, which also ensures a good separation of b-T and g-T using the reversed phase method. Identification of tocopherols by the reversed phase in comparison to the normal phase provides a shorter time of analysis and better repeatability of retention times (Cert et al, 2000).…”

Distribution of Eight Vitamin E Homologs Found in 81 Plants Using LC-MS3

“…Measurement conditions for mass spectrometer and HPLC analyses were set using those reported by Inoue et al [6].…”

“…Because these eight homologs were previously analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a fluorescence detector, which has a low detection sensitivity (156 ng/mL) [5], the precise distribution of homologs in plants was not well understood. We previously developed and reported regarding a highly sensitive analytical method (detection sensitivity of 20 ng/mL) that could simultaneously analyze the eight homologs present in plants using liquid chromatography/multistage mass spectrometry (LC-MS3) [6]. This LC-MS3 method made it possible to detect homologs without the effect of the matrix; therefore, a highly sensitive analysis was established, where MS3 enables extraction from plants using only methanol.…”