Recent developments in the rapid analysis of plants and tracking their bioactive constituents

Natural products chemistry has witnessed many new developments in the last 5 years like extractions with subcritical water and ionic liquids, LC/HRMS and LC/SPE/cryo-NMR, UHPLC, TLC/MS, MS-based preparative HPLC, comprehensive chromatography (GC × GC, LC × LC), high-throughput screening, introduction of monolithic columns, miniaturisation, and automated structure identification. Nevertheless identifying bioactive constituents in complex plant extracts remains a tedious process. The classical approach of bioassay guided fractionation is time-consuming while off-line screening of extracts does not provide information on individual compounds and sometimes suffers from false positives or negatives. One way out of this is by coupling chromatography with chemical or biochemical assays, so called high resolution screening. An example is the development of HPLC on-line assays for antioxidants. By the post-column addition of a relatively stable coloured radical like DPPH¿ or ABTS¿+, radical scavengers are detected as negative peaks because in a reaction coil they reduce the model radical to its reduced, non-coloured form. When combined with LC/DAD/MS and LC/SPE/NMR, reliable identification of active constituents becomes possible without the necessity of ever isolating them in a classical sense. Also for finding leads for new drugs, combining HPLC with biochemical assays is interesting but technically more difficult. Most enzymes do not work at the organic modifier concentrations commonly encountered in RP-HPLC and the reaction time is often longer requiring dilution and lengthy coils respectively. Therefore, new techniques have to be implemented to gain the required sensitivity for on-line enzyme assays. For stable analytes, high temperature LC offers a solution to the organic modifier problem. When enzymes are highly expensive, like those used in the screening for Cytochrome P450 inhibitors, miniaturisation to chip format may offer a way out. Microreactors (chips) are not only useful for miniaturising larger assays but also offer completely new prospects in phytochemical analysis. One such application is in the sample clean-up of acids and bases like alkaloids. In a lay-out of three parallel channels of 100 ¿m width with the middle one containing organic phase and the two outer ones water of high pH (feed phase) and low pH (trapping phase) such a chip replaces two classical LLE steps but is much faster and requires less solvents and less manpower input

An on-line normal-phase high performance liquid chromatography method for the rapid detection of radical scavengers in non-polar food matrixes

An on-line method for the rapid pinpointing of radical scavengers in non-polar mixtures like vegetable oils was developed. To avoid problems with dissolving the sample, normal-phase chromatography on bare silica gel was used with mixtures of hexane and methyl tert-butyl ether as the eluent. The high performance liquid chromatography-separated analytes are mixed post-column with a solution of stable free radicals in hexane. Reduced levels of the radical as a result of a reaction with a radical scavenger are detected as negative peaks by an absorbance detector. After investigating a number of different reagents, solvents, concentrations and solution flow rates an optimized instrumental set-up incorporating a superloop for pulse-free delivery of the reagent solution is presented. Both 2,2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH center dot) and 2,6-di-tert-butyl-alpha-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-oxo-2,5-cyclohexadien-1-ylidene)-p-tolyfoxy (galvinoxyl(center dot)) were used as stable free radicals. The method is suitable for both isocratic and gradient HPLC operation. The method has a simple experimental protocol, uses standard instruments and inexpensive and stable reagents. and accepts any hexane-soluble sample. It can also be used for semi-quantitative analysis. The method was applied to several pure, non-polar natural antioxidants, vegetable oils and lipid-soluble rosemary extract. The limits of detection varied from 0.2 to 176 mu g/ml, depending on the compound tested

An on-line high performance liquid chromatography-crocin bleaching assay for detection of antioxidants

An on-line HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) method for the rapid screening of individual antioxidants in mixtures was developed using crocin as a substrate (i.e. oxidation probe) and 2,2'-azobis(2-amidinopropane dihydrochloride (AAPH)) in phosphate buffer (pH 7.5) as a radical generator. The polyene structure of crocin and AAPH-derived peroxyl radicals resemble the lipidic substrates and radicals found in true food more closely than the popular, albeit artificial, DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) and ABTS+ (2,2-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate)) do. After separation by a C18 (octadecyl silica) column and UV (ultraviolet) detection, antioxidative analytes react with peroxyl radicals at 90 °C and the inhibition of crocin oxidation (i.e. bleaching) is detected as a positive peak by an absorbance detector at 440 nm. The method is simple, uses standard instruments and inexpensive reagents. It can be applied for isocratic HPLC runs using mobile phases containing 10–90% organic solvent in water, weak acids or buffers (pH 3.5–8.5). With baseline correction, gradient runs are also feasible. The radical scavenging activity of several natural antioxidants and a green tea extract was studied. After optimisation of conditions such as reagent concentrations and flows, the limit of detection varied from 0.79 to 7.4 ng, depending on the antioxidant. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography with ultraviolet, evaporative light scattering and mass spectrometric detection of triacylglycerols in corn oil

An improved comprehensive two-dimensional (LC × LC) HPLC system for the analysis of triacylglycerols was developed. In the first-dimension, a Ag(I)-coated cation exchanger (250 mm × 2.1 mm, 5 ¿m) was employed with a gradient from 100% MeOH to 6% MeCN in MeOH at 20 ¿L/min. Using a 10-way valve with two switching loops, 1 min sections of the first-dimension were introduced in the second-dimension consisting of a 30 mm × 4.6 mm C18 (1.8 ¿m) column with an isocratic mobile phase of methanol¿methyl tert-butyl ether (70:30) at 3.0 mL/min. As the second-dimension solvent was stronger than the first-dimension solvent, focusing in the second-dimension took place, leading to better separations than in previously reported analyses in which hexane was the main constituent of the first-dimension eluent. Compounds differing by 2 in their partition number were baseline separated in the second-dimension. Detection took place by UV at 210 nm, evaporative light scattering and (+)-atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation-MS with the latter giving the best results. Corn oil was investigated and 44 compounds could be detected: 34 triacylglycerols (TAGs), 8 oxygenated TAGs, and 2 TAGs containing a trans double bond. Data manipulation allowed the construction of contour plots and the automated calculation of the first- and second-dimension retention times and peak areas. Quantitative results are compared with a fatty acid methyl ester analysis, and with literature data

Fast chromatographic separation for the quantitation of the main flavone dyes in Reseda luteola (weld)

In the past decades, there has been a renewed interest in the use of natural dye plants for textile dyeing, e.g. Reseda luteola (weld). Its main yellow dye constituents are the flavones luteolin-7,3'-O-diglucoside, luteolin-7-O-glucoside and luteolin. The aim of this work was to develop a simple validated industrially usable quantitative method to assess the flavone content of R. luteola samples. The flavones were overnight extracted from the dried and ground aerial parts of the plant at room temperature via maceration with methanol-water 8:2. Afterwards, they were quantified through internal standardisation against chrysin by RP-HPLC-UV at 345nm. The efficiency of the one-step extraction was 95%. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantitation (LOQ) were =1ng and =3ng, respectively, providing ample sensitivity for the purpose. The precision expressed as relative standard deviation of the entire method wa

Recent developments in the rapid analysis of plants and tracking their bioactive constituents

Natural products chemistry has witnessed many new developments in the last 5 years like extractions with subcritical water and ionic liquids, LC/HRMS and LC/SPE/cryo-NMR, UHPLC, TLC/MS, MS-based preparative HPLC, comprehensive chromatography (GC × GC, LC × LC), high-throughput screening, introduction of monolithic columns, miniaturisation, and automated structure identification. Nevertheless identifying bioactive constituents in complex plant extracts remains a tedious process. The classical approach of bioassay guided fractionation is time-consuming while off-line screening of extracts does not provide information on individual compounds and sometimes suffers from false positives or negatives. One way out of this is by coupling chromatography with chemical or biochemical assays, so called high resolution screening. An example is the development of HPLC on-line assays for antioxidants. By the post-column addition of a relatively stable coloured radical like DPPH¿ or ABTS¿+, radical scavengers are detected as negative peaks because in a reaction coil they reduce the model radical to its reduced, non-coloured form. When combined with LC/DAD/MS and LC/SPE/NMR, reliable identification of active constituents becomes possible without the necessity of ever isolating them in a classical sense. Also for finding leads for new drugs, combining HPLC with biochemical assays is interesting but technically more difficult. Most enzymes do not work at the organic modifier concentrations commonly encountered in RP-HPLC and the reaction time is often longer requiring dilution and lengthy coils respectively. Therefore, new techniques have to be implemented to gain the required sensitivity for on-line enzyme assays. For stable analytes, high temperature LC offers a solution to the organic modifier problem. When enzymes are highly expensive, like those used in the screening for Cytochrome P450 inhibitors, miniaturisation to chip format may offer a way out. Microreactors (chips) are not only useful for miniaturising larger assays but also offer completely new prospects in phytochemical analysis. One such application is in the sample clean-up of acids and bases like alkaloids. In a lay-out of three parallel channels of 100 ¿m width with the middle one containing organic phase and the two outer ones water of high pH (feed phase) and low pH (trapping phase) such a chip replaces two classical LLE steps but is much faster and requires less solvents and less manpower input

Separation and direct detection of long chain fatty acids and their methylesters by the non-aqueous reversed phase HPLC and Silver Ion Chromotography, combined with CO laser pumped thermal lens spectrometry

The potential of the CO laser pumped dual beam thermal lens spectrometer (TLS) used as the detector of infrared (IR) absorbance in non-aqueous reversed-phase high pressure liquid chromatography (NARP-HPLC) and argentation chromatography (Ag-HPLC-TLS) has been investigated. The linoleic acid C18:2 (9,11) cis, cis, the conjugated linoleic acid C18:2 (9,12) cis, cis, and (9,11) cis, cis and oleic acid C18:1 (9) cis free fatty acids present in the test mixture were separated and detected by NARP-HPLC-TLS directly, i.e., without a need for their prederivatization. The limit of detection (LOD) for the present NARP-HPLC-TLS set-up was determined using either oleic acid C18:1 (9) cis or linoleic acid C18:2 (9,12) cis, cis as the only analyte. The LOD obtained at 1750 cm-1 for C18:2 (9,12) cis, cis is 0.14% (v/v) with the standard deviation being 3.8% of the measured value. This is comparable to the LOD attainable by the bulk property refractive index detector (RID). For C18:1 (9) cis the LOD is 0.04% (v/v) with a standard deviation of 2.5%. The unique feature of the NARP-HPLC-TLS is its excellent selectivity; this was demonstrated experimentally by adding alcohols (octanol and decanol) that lack the C&dbnd;O carbonyl group to the aforementioned mixture of three fatty acids. In another experiment, the Ag-HPLC-TLS in IR was used to directly detect two different mixtures of five fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) after separation on the column. The results were compared to those achieved by the conventional UV absorbance detector. Despite more favourable excitation cross sections of FAMEs in the IR, the concentration LOD obtained for Ag-HPLC-TLS is inferior to that of the Ag-HPLC-UV. However, the mass LOD (11 µg) achieved by Ag-HPLC-TLS in IR for C18:3 FAME is two times better than that of the Ag-HPLC-UV absorbance detector. High IR absorption of eluent restricts, at present, the sensitivity of the Ag-HPLC-TLS and NARP-HPLC-TLS. Improved LOD's are anticipated by a judicious choice of the mobile phase and after materialising several modifications of the experimental set-up