Fragmentation patterns of selected ergot alkaloids by electrospray ionization tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry.
Tall fescue toxicosis and other maladies in livestock result from the ingestion of vasoconstrictive ergot alkaloids produced by fungal endophytes associated symbiotically with the grass. In order to facilitate future analyses of grass extracts considered responsible for outbreak of related livestock diseases, we examined the electrospray ionization mass spectra of specific ergot alkaloids under conditions that permit protonation. Our purposes were both to record the spectra with interpretation of mechanisms of fragmentation and to derive commonalities that would allow the prediction of mass spectra of related compounds for which standards were not readily available. With [M + H](+) values in parentheses, water-insoluble lysergic acid peptide ergot derivatives ergovaline (m/z 534), ergotamine (m/z 582), ergocornine (m/z 562), ergocryptine (m/z 576) and ergocrystine (m/z 610) exhibited a consistent loss of water (-18 u) from the C-12' alpha-hydroxy functionality. Of this group, ergovaline and ergotamine generated an m/z 320 fragment deriving from cleavage of ring E amide and ether functions with retention of the peptide ring system methyl group. Ergocornine, ergocryptine and ergocrystine similarly formed an m/z 348 fragment with retention of isopropyl. These assignments were supported by the lack of similar fragments from the water-soluble ergot ergonovine, which lacks a peptide ring system. Clavine-type ergot alkaloids lysergic acid and lysergol lack any substituents beyond simple ones directly on the C-8 position and, similarly to ergonovine, lack significant fragments at m/z 268, 251 and 225 shared by the peptide ergot alkaloids.
University of Kentucky, Department of Veterinary Science, Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center, Lexington, Kentucky 40546, USA. alehner@uky.edu
Andreas F
AF
Lehner
Morrie
M
Craig
Neil
N
Fannin
Lowell
L
Bush
Thomas
T
Tobin
D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D004873:Ergolines / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D004874:Ergonovine / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D004876:Ergot Alkaloids / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D004878:Ergotamine / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D004879:Ergotamines / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D031751:Festuca / Q000382:microbiology*; D005506:Food Contamination; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D006736:Horses; D008237:Lysergic Acid / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization
D004873:Ergolines; D004876:Ergot Alkaloids; D004879:Ergotamines; C076760:ergovaline; C100270:ergocristine; C100269:ergocryptine; C100271:ergocornine; D008237:Lysergic Acid; C061884:lysergol; D004878:Ergotamine; D004874:Ergonovine