Analysis of Evodiae Fructus by capillary electrochromatography-mass spectrometry with methyl-vinylimidazole functionalized organic polymer monolilth as stationary phases

Abstract

Evodiae Fructus is used as a traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of several kinds of diseases with its bioactive constituents. In this study, a capillary electrochromatography-mass spectrometry (CEC-MS) method was developed to determine three bioactive compounds including evodiamine, rutaecarpine and limonin in Evodiae Fructus fruit. Home-developed monolithic columns with methyl-vinylimidazole functionalized organic polymer monolilth as stationary phases were used in CEC-MS with excellent separation selectivity and high efficiency. The CEC-MS methods provided 4-16 folds improvement of LODs when compared with CEC-UV method. The conditions, which could affect separation efficiency and detection sensitivity, were optimized. Under optimum conditions, baseline separation with high detection sensitivity was obtained. The method showed good linearity (R² >0.99) of 0.8-160 μg mL^-1 with low limits of detection of 0.15-0.31 μg mL^-1. Relative standard deviations of migration time and relative peak areas were <13.89%. Recoveries of evodiamine, rutaecarpine and limonin in Evodiae Fructus fruit were tested and calculated, which ranged from 102% to 113%. Finally, the three bioactive compounds in Evodiae Fructus herb samples from different regions were analyzed and studied. It has been demonstrated that the developed method has great potential for quality control of Evodiae Fructus herb.

Keywords: Bioactive components; Capillary electrochromatography-mass spectrometry; Evodiae Fructus; Methyl-vinylimidazole functionalized organic polymer monolilth; Monolithic column.