title: High-performance liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric assay of high-value compounds for pharmaceutical use from plant cell tissue culture: Cinchona alkaloids.
abstract: The use of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) interfaced with thermospray (TSP) mass spectrometry is described for the separation and identification of various alkaloids from Cinchona ledgeriana extracts. The use of water-acetonitrile-acetic acid (71:25:4) with 0.01 M ammonium acetate (pH 3.0) as the mobile phase gave good HPLC separation and good TSP sensitivity. The specificity obtained by single-ion monitoring allowed the analysis of commercially important alkaloids such as quinine and quinidine in plant material, transformed roots and in cells from tissue culture, with relatively simple extraction and work-up procedures. TSP gave protonated species with few fragment ions but collision-induced dissociation offers the promise of increased analytically specificity from the fragment ion data. This work has important implications for the biotechnological production of pharmaceuticals normally obtained from plant sources.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, Brunswick Square, London, U.K.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abdulrahman
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Welham
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Baldwin
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Phillipson
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D002930:Cinchona Alkaloids / Q000032:analysis*; D046508:Culture Techniques; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D011802:Quinidine / Q000032:analysis; D011803:Quinine / Q000032:analysis; D016339:Spectrometry, Mass, Fast Atom Bombardment
chemical_list: D002930:Cinchona Alkaloids; D011803:Quinine; D011802:Quinidine