title: A novel ultra-performance liquid chromatography hyphenated with quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry method for rapid estimation of total toxic retronecine-type of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in herbs without requiring corresponding standards.
abstract: Nearly 50% of naturally-occurring pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are hepatotoxic, and the majority of hepatotoxic PAs are retronecine-type PAs (RET-PAs). However, quantitative measurement of PAs in herbs/foodstuffs is often difficult because most of reference PAs are unavailable. In this study, a rapid, selective, and sensitive UHPLC-QTOF-MS method was developed for the estimation of RET-PAs in herbs without requiring corresponding standards. This method is based on our previously established characteristic and diagnostic mass fragmentation patterns and the use of retrorsine for calibration. The use of a single RET-PA (i.e. retrorsine) for construction of calibration was based on high similarities with no significant differences demonstrated by the calibration curves constructed by peak areas of extract ion chromatograms of fragment ion at m/z 120.0813 or 138.0919 versus concentrations of five representative RET-PAs. The developed method was successfully applied to measure a total content of toxic RET-PAs of diversified structures in fifteen potential PA-containing herbs.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Joint Research Laboratory for Promoting Globalization of Traditional Chinese Medicines, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Joint Research Laboratory for Promoting Globalization of Traditional Chinese Medicines, China.
authors.forename: Jian-Qing
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Ruan
authors.affiliation: State Key Lab for Quality Research in Chinese Medicines, Macau Institute for Applied Research in Medicine and Health, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau, China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: National Center for Toxicological Research, Jefferson, AR 72079, United States.
authors.forename: Peter P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Joint Research Laboratory for Promoting Globalization of Traditional Chinese Medicines, China; State Key Laboratory of Drug Research & Natural Products Chemistry Department, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; The Chinese University of Hong Kong - Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Joint Research Laboratory for Promoting Globalization of Traditional Chinese Medicines, China. Electronic address: gelin@cuhk.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Ge
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D019659:Asteraceae / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D011763:Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids / Q000032:analysis* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D011763:Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids; C014795:retronecine
keywords: Food safety; Hepatotoxic; Pyrrolizidine alkaloids; Retronecine type; UHPLC–MS