title: Identification and determination of Aconitum alkaloids in Aconitum herbs and Xiaohuoluo pill using UPLC-ESI-MS.
abstract: A rapid, specific, and sensitive ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-MS) method to examine the chemical differences between Aconitum herbs and processed products has been developed and validated. Combined with chemometrics analysis of principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal projection to latent structural discriminate analysis, diester-diterpenoid and monoester-type alkaloids, especially the five alkaloids which contributed to the chemical distinction between Aconitum herbs and processed products, namely mesaconitine (MA), aconitine (AC), hypaconitine (HA), benzoylmesaconitine (BMA), and benzoylhypaconitine (BHA), were picked out. Further, the five alkaloids and benzoylaconitine (BAC) have been simultaneously determined in the Xiaohuoluo pill. Chromatographic separations were achieved on a C₁₈ column and peaks were detected by mass spectrometry in positive ion mode and selected ion recording (SIR) mode. In quantitative analysis, the six alkaloids showed good regression, (r) > 0.9984, within the test ranges. The lower limit quantifications (LLOQs) for MA, AC, HA, BMA, BAC, and BHA were 1.41, 1.20, 1.92, 4.28, 1.99 and 2.02 ng·mL⁻¹, respectively. Recoveries ranged from 99.7% to 101.7%. The validated method was applied successfully in the analysis of the six alkaloids from different samples, in which significant variations were revealed. Results indicated that the developed assay can be used as an appropriate quality control assay for Xiaohuoluo pill and other herbal preparations containing Aconitum roots.
authors.affiliation: The Ministry of Education-MOE, Key Laboratory for Standardization of Chinese Medicines, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201210, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000157:Aconitine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D031841:Aconitum / Q000737:chemistry*; D000470:Alkaloids / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D004224:Diterpenes / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000737:chemistry*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization
chemical_list: D000470:Alkaloids; D004224:Diterpenes; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C479202:benzoylhypaconine; C058309:hypaconitine; C019470:mesaconitine; C085283:benzoylmesaconine; D000157:Aconitine