Analysis of Synthetic Drugs in Adulterated Chinese Medicine by High Performance Liquid Chromatography/Electrospray Mass Spectrometry
Yi Song1, Guor-Rong Her1* and Kuo-Ching Wen2
1. Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
2. National Laboratories of Foods and Drugs, Department of Health, Executive Yuan, R.O.C.
Abstract
High performance liquid chromatography / ultraviolet (HPLC / UV) coupled to electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry (MS) provides a highly reliable method for the qualitative analysis of synthetic chemical drugs in adulterated traditional Chinese medicine. Electrospray is most suited to compounds of high polarity or thermolabile because the ionization is performed in solution and vaporization of analyte before ionization is not necessary. The dubious adulterants were identified by their retention times, molecular ions and specific fragment ions produced from the in source collisional induced dissociation.
Key words: high performance liquid chromatography, electrospray, in source collisional induced dissociation