Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2011 Nov;1(4):235-245.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpha.2011.09.008. Epub 2011 Oct 21.

Liquid chromatography coupled with time-of-flight and ion trap mass spectrometry for qualitative analysis of herbal medicines

Xiao-Fei Chen  1   2 , Hai-Tang Wu  1   2 , Guang-Guo Tan  1   2 , Zhen-Yu Zhu  1   2 , Yi-Feng Chai  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Liquid chromatography coupled with time-of-flight and ion trap mass spectrometry for qualitative analysis of herbal medicines

Xiao-Fei Chen et al. J Pharm Anal. 2011 Nov.

Abstract

With the expansion of herbal medicine (HM) market, the issue on how to apply up-to-date analytical tools on qualitative analysis of HMs to assure their quality, safety and efficacy has been arousing great attention. Due to its inherent characteristics of accurate mass measurements and multiple stages analysis, the integrated strategy of liquid chromatography (LC) coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) and ion trap mass spectrometry (IT-MS) is well-suited to be performed as qualitative analysis tool in this field. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview on the potential of this integrated strategy, including the review of general features of LC-IT-MS and LC-TOF-MS, the advantages of their combination, the common procedures for structure elucidation, the potential of LC-hybrid-IT-TOF/MS and also the summary and discussion of the applications of the integrated strategy for HM qualitative analysis (2006-2011). The advantages and future developments of LC coupled with IT and TOF-MS are highlighted.

Keywords: Herbal medicine (HM); High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); Ion trap mass spectrometry (IT-MS); Time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS).

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
TOF-MS spectra (a) and IT-MS1–5 spectra (b) of salvianolic acid B.
Figure 2
Figure 2
HPLC–UV chromatogram monitored at 280 nm (a), TIC profile from HPLC/ESI-TOF-MS (b), and TIC profile from HPLC/ESI–MSn (c) of phenolics and diterpenoids in Radix Salvia miltiorrhizae.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The proposed fragmentation pathways of licobenzofuran (a), licochalcone D (b), licoisoflavone (c) and gancaonin L (d).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Tilburt J.C., Kaptchuk T.J. Herbal medicine research and global health: an ethical analysis. Bull. World Health Organ. 2008;86:594–599. - PMC - PubMed
    1. WHO issues guidelines for herbal medicines, Bull. World Health Organ. 2004;82:238. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zhou J.L., Qi L.W., Li P. Herbal medicine analysis by liquid chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry. J. Chromatogr. A. 2009;1216:7582–7594. - PubMed
    1. Yang M., Sun J., Lu Z. Phytochemical analysis of traditional Chinese medicine using liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. J. Chromatogr. A. 2009;1216:2045–2062. - PubMed
    1. Lacorte S., Fernandez-Alba A.R. Time of flight mass spectrometry applied to the liquid chromatographic analysis of pesticides in water and food. Mass Spectrom. Rev. 2006;25:866–880. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources