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

Lin Zhu; Jian-Qing Ruan; Na Li; Peter P Fu; Yang Ye; Ge Lin

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.11.093

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

Food Chem. 2016 Mar 1:194:1320-8. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.11.093. Epub 2014 Nov 25.

Authors

Lin Zhu¹, Jian-Qing Ruan¹, Na Li², Peter P Fu³, Yang Ye⁴, Ge Lin⁵

Affiliations

¹ 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.
² 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.
³ National Center for Toxicological Research, Jefferson, AR 72079, United States.
⁴ 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.
⁵ 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.

PMID: 26471688
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.11.093

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.

Keywords: Food safety; Hepatotoxic; Pyrrolizidine alkaloids; Retronecine type; UHPLC–MS.

Publication types

Evaluation Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Asteraceae / chemistry*
Asteraceae / toxicity
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / methods*
Drugs, Chinese Herbal / analysis*
Drugs, Chinese Herbal / toxicity
Mass Spectrometry / methods*
Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids / analysis*
Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids / toxicity

Substances

Drugs, Chinese Herbal
Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids
retronecine