Determination of aristolochic acids in medicinal plant and herbal product by liquid chromatography–electrospray–ion trap mass spectrometry

• Published in: Talanta (Oxford) 2003-07, Vol.60 (4), p.679-685
• Main Authors: Chan, Shun-An, Chen, Ming-Jyh, Liu, Tsung-Yun, Fuh, Ming-Ren, Deng, Jou-Fang, Wu, Ming-Lin, Hsieh, Su-Jong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Aristolochic acid; Biological and medical sciences; General pharmacology; Herbal remedy; LC–ES–MS; Medical sciences; Medicinal plant; Pharmacology. Drug treatments
• ISSN: 0039-9140; 1873-3573
• DOI: 10.1016/S0039-9140(03)00142-5

This paper describes a liquid chromatography–electrospray–ion trap mass spectrometry (LC–ES–ITMS) method for the determination of aristolochic acid I and II (AA-I and AA-II) in medicinal plants and Chinese herbal remedies. A reversed phase C 18 column with gradient elution was utilized. The effects of mobile phase additives, acetic acid and ammonium acetate, on LC separation and ES ionization were investigated. For both AA-I and AA-II, the [M+NH 4] + ion was found to be the precursor ion for target MS/MS analysis. The MS/MS product ion, [M+H−44] +, was used for the quantitative measurement of AA-I and AA-II. The linearity was good from 0.03 to 5 μg ml −1 and good correlation ( r 2=0.999) over the range examined was determined for both AA. The detection limit based on a signal-to-noise ratio of three was 0.012 and 0.015 μg ml −1 for AA-I and AA-II, respectively. Various Chinese herbal remedies obtained from renal failure patients and medicinal plants were examined by this newly developed method.