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Simultaneous quantification of atropine and scopolamine in infusions of herbal tea and Solanaceae plant material by matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight (tandem) mass spectrometry
Author(s) -
John Harald,
Rychlik Michael,
Thiermann Horst,
Schmidt Christian
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.8264
Subject(s) - chemistry , scopolamine , chromatography , mass spectrometry , tandem mass spectrometry , atropine , tandem , matrix (chemical analysis) , pharmacology , medicine , anesthesia , materials science , composite material
Rationale Atropine (Atr) and scopolamine (Scp) are toxic secondary plant metabolites of species within the Solanaceae genus that can accidentally or intentionally reach the food store chain by inaccurate harvesting of any plant material, e.g. for herbal tea infusions. Ingestion may cause severe anticholinergic poisoning thus requiring risk‐oriented determination in food and beverages. The suitability of matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight (tandem) mass spectrometry, MALDI‐TOF MS(/MS), should be characterized for simultaneous analysis. Methods We herein present the first MALDI‐TOF MS(/MS) procedure for quantitative determination of both alkaloids in herbal tea infusions and Solanaceae plant material. A standard additions procedure using triply deuterated Atr as internal standard was developed and validated. Results Tropane alkaloids were detected without interferences and the standard additions procedure allowed reliable quantification. Intraday and interday precision were less than 17% and corresponding accuracies were between 77% and 112%. Limits of detection in the spotting solution were found at 5 ng/mL (Atr) and 0.5 ng/mL (Scp). The assay was applied to diverse tea infusions as well as to berries and leaves of deadly nightshade and angel's trumpet. Conclusions The usefulness of MALDI‐TOF MS(/MS) for investigations of plant‐derived samples to prove contaminations by small basic compounds was demonstrated. The elaborate procedure is reliable but quite laborious to obtain quantitative results, but MALDI‐TOF MS(/MS) was also shown to be a valuable tool for rapid qualitative screening for Atr and Scp in plant extracts.