Evaluation of a liquid chromatography method for quality control of methylated cyclodextrins.

Halo C18 column (fused core particles) and Chromolith RP18 column (monolith) were evaluated in liquid chromatography in order to analyze methylated-ß-cyclodextrins (Me-ß-CD) with various degrees of substitution, DS such as the number of methyl groups per cyclodextrin ring. Chromolith RP18 enables a performing analysis of Me-ß-CD with low DS but is not suitable for dimethyl-ß-cyclodextrins (DM-ß-CD). On the other hand, Halo C18 column allows an improved fingerprint of CDs having a DS from 4.9 up to a value major than 14 and avoiding the use of various chromatographic systems. Thus, liquid chromatography performed with this column and an evaporative light scattering detector can be used as a generic system for methylated CD analysis. Moreover, fused core particles of Halo C18 column enables a rapid analysis and liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray-mass spectrometry appears as a powerful tool to determine co-elution and to characterize various isomers of complex methylated-ß-cyclodextrin mixtures.

Classification of natural resins by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry using chemometric analysis.

Twenty-six resins from six botanical sources belonging to the class Magnoliopsida were compared based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry data. The extracts were analysed by GC after silylation and by reversed phase LC combined with atmospheric pressure photoionisation (APPI) mass spectrometry. The chromatograms were re-organized in data matrices, where each sample was represented by a single column comprising 2755 observations (intensity, time, m/z) in GC-MS and 360 observations in LC-MS. A simple comparison of resin fingerprints was attempted by organizing data according to a three dimensional bubble chart (retention time against m/z where each point was a bubble which size represented the ion intensity) where it is possible to easily superimpose the fingerprints. Thus the common and different species can be easily observed enabling to classify the resins. Hierarchical cluster analysis based on characteristics of GC-MS and LC-MS profiles affords a complete description of the classes of the resins and shows that 26 resins are divided into five main clusters Commiphora mukul, Daniella oliveri, Gardenia gummifera, Canarium madagascariensis, Boswellia dalzielii and Boswellia serrata, respectively. In conclusion, the proposed method has been applied to three other resinous samples from the Burseraceae family to evaluate their alteration state.

Investigation of porous graphitic carbon for triterpenoids and natural resinous materials analysis by high performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to mass spectrometry.

Natural resinous materials are mainly composed of pentacyclic triterpenes which exhibit a large number of interesting medicinal activities. However, the presence of numerous isomers within the active substances makes their screening by HPLC very challenging. Porous graphitic carbon was investigated as stationary phase to achieve triterpenes isomers separation. The influence of various parameters (temperature, formic acid concentration and mobile phase composition) on the retention was considered. A usual decrease of the retention of triterpenes was observed with the increase of the temperature. Therefore, separation in resinous materials was performed at 25°C. Acetonitrile-isopropanol mixture was chosen as mobile phase in gradient elution and leads to the best compromise between efficiency and high resolution. The lack of chromophore groups in the pentacyclic triterpenes structures required the use of mass spectrometry detection. Moreover, atmospheric pressure photo-ionisation mass spectrometry prevents compounds fragmentation which was helpful for spectra interpretation and compounds identification.

Porous graphitic carbon: a versatile stationary phase for liquid chromatography.

Chromatographic stationary phases based on porous graphitic carbon were invented 30 years ago, while columns have been commercially available for 20 years. This special occasion deserved a complete review on this material. In this paper, we describe current knowledge on graphitic carbon stationary phases, based on over 400 fundamental studies and applications.

Centrifugal partition chromatography directly interfaced with mass spectrometry for the fast screening and fractionation of major xanthones in Garcina mangostana.

Xanthones are well known for their interesting phytochemical properties, which make them attractive to the pharmaceutical and medicinal industry. We have therefore developed a method to analyse the major xanthones in Garcina mangostana. The xanthones were extracted by pressurized liquid extraction with ethanol and separated at the semi-preparative scale by centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) with a biphasic solvent system consisting of heptane/ethyl acetate/methanol/water (2:1:2:1, v/v/v/v). A CPC-electrospray ionisation MS coupling was performed and used to simultaneously separate and identify the compounds. Thanks to a variable flow splitter and an additional stream of ethanol/1 mol L(-1) ammonium acetate (95:5, v/v), all the compounds were ionised, detected and monitored whatever the solvents used in mobile phase for the CPC separation. The dual mode or elution-extrusion which are less solvent-consuming and faster than the elution mode were used without loss of ionisation and detection.

Analysis of pentacyclic triterpenes by LC-MS. A comparative study between APCI and APPI.

The analytical performances of three atmospheric-pressure sources, electrospray (ESI), atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization (APCI), and atmospheric-pressure photoionization (APPI), were evaluated for the analysis of pentacyclic triterpenes in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Among these sources, APPI and APCI are particularly well adapted to sensitive analyses of pentacyclic triterpenes by LC-MS. Detection parameters were optimized for both the sources, and the effects of three dopants (toluene, acetone and anisole) on the detection (sensitivity and ion fingerprints in MS spectra) were studied in detail for APPI-MS.The limits of quantification were measured under selected ion monitoring conditions, in the range of 0.005-0.015 mg l(-1) and 0.002-0.84 mg l(-1) in APPI and APCI, respectively, depending on the studied pentacyclic triterpene. Overall, APPI was found more sensitive than APCI in positive ion mode, whereas APCI shows the greatest sensitivity for acidic triterpenes in negative ion mode.Following this study, the developed LC-MS method was used for the characterization of pentacyclic triterpenes in three plant extracts. High amounts of betulinic acid, betulinic aldehyde and betulinic aldehyde acetate were observed in plane bark. The main component of birch bark is betulin and extracts of okoume resin exhibit high amounts of alpha- and beta-amyrin.

LC-UV and LC-MS evaluation of stress degradation behaviour of avizafone.

It has been known for many years that benzodiazepine compounds effectively antagonize seizures induced by organophosphorous nerve agents. In the event of poisoning, a combination of three drugs is commonly used: an anticholinergic drug (e.g. atropine), an oxime used as cholinesterase reactivator (e.g. pralidoxime or HI-6) and an anticonvulsant (i.e. benzodiazepine). Most of anticholinergics and oximes are freely soluble in water, whereas many benzodiazepines are not. However, a water-soluble prodrug form of diazepam, avizafone, has been adopted by French armed forces for the immediate treatment of nerve agent seizure. The degradation behaviour of this new drug was investigated under different stress degradation conditions (hydrolytic, oxidative, photolytic and thermal) as recommended by International Conference on Harmonization. Successful separation of the active pharmaceutical ingredient from decomposition products formed under stress conditions was achieved using liquid chromatography. The method was validated with respect to specificity, linearity, precision and accuracy.

Chiral separation of atropine by high-performance liquid chromatography.

The separation and quantitation of the enantiomers and also the determination of the enantiomeric purity are now current and indispensable tasks for the pharmaceutical analysis. Among the various techniques, liquid chromatography remains the best modality owing to several advantages. High speed, sensitivity, and reproducible results make LC the method of choice in almost all laboratories. Phases that contain alpha1-acid glycoprotein as chiral selector are suitable for separation of charged and uncharged enantiomers with widely different structure. Atropine is widely used as parasympatolytic, anticholinergic and antiemetic drugs. It is one of the preferred antidote for immediate management of toxicity associated with nerve agents. Stereoselective separation was achieved with a prepacked alpha1-acid glycoprotein column without any derivatization procedure. The liquid chromatography system is coupled to mass spectrometry with an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization interface in the positive-ion mode. The chromatographed analytes are detected in selective ion monitoring after optimisation using factorial experimental design. Small amount of enantiomeric composition can be evaluated either by MS or by UV spectrometry (less than 5%).

Evaluation of apparent formation constants of pentacyclic triterpene acids complexes with derivatized beta- and gamma-cyclodextrins by reversed phase liquid chromatography.

A reversed phase HPLC method has been investigated in order to resolve three main pentacyclic triterpene acids (oleanolic-, betulinic- and ursolic acid) found in a lot of plants. Some of them (oleanolic and ursolic acids) are position isomers and their resolution is highly improved by the addition of derivatized cyclodextrins in mobile phase. The formation of 1:1 inclusion complexes was assumed. Apparent formation constants of triterpene acids with DM-beta-CD and HP-gamma-CD were determined by HPLC method. Experimental results confirmed the complexation model and explained the modification of elution order according to the type of cyclodextrin added to the mobile phase. The influence of mobile phase organic modifier on apparent formation constants was also investigated. Results proved the competition between cyclodextrins hydrophobic cavity and organic solvent towards triterpene acids affinity.

Development of an LC-MS-MS method for the quantification of taurine derivatives in marine invertebrates.

Sulfur amino acids, such as taurine, hypotaurine, and thiotaurine, were found in high quantities in tissues of marine symbiotic organisms (e.g., bivalves, tubeworms) living close to hydrothermal vent sites. Therefore, they are assumed to play a key role in the S-oxidizing base metabolism or sulfide detoxification. We propose here a specific, rapid, and original analytical procedure for the direct determination of sulfur amino acids at the level of a few parts per billion in biological samples, avoiding the classical low specific post-column ortho-phthaldialdehyde derivatization step required by non-ultraviolet-absorbing molecules. Indeed, by coupling liquid chromatography on a porous graphitic stationary phase under isocratic conditions (10 mM ammonium acetate buffer adjusted to pH 9.3) to tandem mass spectrometry (ionization process by pneumatically assisted electrospray in negative ion mode), it is possible to perform specific quantification of these metabolites in less than 10 min directly in biological matrices without any derivatization step or other tedious sample treatments. Thus, taurine, hypotaurine, and thiotaurine have been identified and assayed in several deep sea organisms, showing that the developed method is well suited for this kind of application.

Comparative analysis of enzymatically digested kappa-carrageenans, using liquid chromatography on ion-exchange and porous graphitic carbon columns coupled to an evaporative light scattering detector.

Enzymatically digested kappa (A-G4S)-carrageenans, apart from their biological activities in plants, could be used as 'model' molecules to elucidate potential problems in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of carrageenans. Thus, oligosaccharides obtained from kappa-carrageenan by enzymatic digestion using kappa-carrageenase have been separated on silica and polymeric based ion-exchange and porous graphitic carbon (PGC) columns, coupled to an evaporative light scattering detector. Oligomers were separated on ion-exchange columns using a gradient of ammonium acetate as a developing ion, while analysis on PGC column presented an additional adjacent peak next to each main one, using a gradient of ammonium acetate in water/acetonitrile as a mobile phase. The phenomenon can be attributed to different retention mechanisms that govern the PGC surface. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that acetonitrile can regulate the selectivity between the peaks raising hopes for preparative chromatography.

Characterisation of iota-carrageenans oligosaccharides with high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with evaporative light scattering detection.

Enzymatically digested oligo-iota-carrageenans were separated with liquid chromatography, coupled to evaporative light scattering detection. As expected, compared to oligo-kappa-carrageenans, the additional sulphate group in the neocarrabiose unit of iota-carrageenans significantly modified the separation mechanisms on ion-exchange chromatography, porous graphitic carbon and ion-pair chromatography. The oligomers were then isolated and characterised off-line with electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry in positive-ion mode. The tetrasaccharide, hexasaccharide and octasaccharide that were identified were associated with protonated heptylamine molecules whose number depended on the number of sulphate groups.

Liquid chromatography of polyglycerol fatty esters and fatty ethers on porous graphitic carbon and octadecyl silica by using evaporative light scattering detection and mass spectrometry.

A liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the analysis of polyglycerol fatty esters and fatty ethers which are non-ionic surfactants. Two methods were compared using either octadecyl silica or porous graphitic carbon. The octadecyl silica system with a hydroorganic mobile phase enables to compare the hydrophobic behavior of the compounds. The porous graphitic carbon enables the separation of the diastereoisomers. Detection of these non-UV-absorbing compounds was achieved by evaporative light scattering detection. Identification of isomers was performed by mass spectrometry.

A new approach to the study of glucosinolates by isocratic liquid chromatography. Part I. Rapid determination of desulfated derivatives of rapeseed glucosinolates.

Liquid chromatographic (LC) analysis of desulfated derivatives of rapeseed glucosinolates has been carried out under isocratic elution conditions with different CN-bonded stationary phases. The effects of the eluant composition (water, acetonitrile, and methanol) with the stationary phase (Zorbax CN, Lichrospher CN, and Ultrasphere CN) and temperature (20 and 50 degrees C) are described. An isocratic LC method performed at room temperature using a Lichrospher CN column and water as mobile phase is proposed. The chromatographic analysis can be done in less than 12 min, and it is easier and less expensive than the traditional gradient mode. Four commercial samples of rapeseed containing various quantities of other cruciferous seeds (wild mustard and stinkweed) as an admixture have been analyzed to determine the total glucosinolate content. Relative standard deviations of repeatability of the isocratic and gradient LC methods ranged from 0.4 to 1.7% and from 2.7 to 4.7%, respectively. Comparison of the results showed good agreement between the 2 methods (beter than 98%).

[Synthesis of glycosides. Direct high-performance liquid chromatographic determination of intermediate perbenzylated anomers (author's transl)]. / Dosage direct des anomères perbenzylés intermédiaires par chromatographie en phase liquide à haute performance.

High-performance liquid chromatography has been used to determine the stereospecificity of the synthesis of alpha or beta glycosides. The protecting groups are benzylic ethers, therefore we have employed reversed-phase liquid chromatography to separate alpha and beta anomers. Some octadecyl supports have been compared, in order to optimize the separation for several glycosides.