DETERMINATION OF PACLITAXEL AND RELATED DITERPENOIDS IN PLANT-EXTRACTS BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH UV DETECTION IN HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY MASS-SPECTROMETRY

Reversed-phase HPLC was used for the determination of paclitaxel and r elated compounds in both isocratic and gradient mode, using four diffe rent HPLC columns. With the selected acetonitrile-0.05 M ammonium acet ate gradient, 13 taxanes of a standard mixture were clearly separated on a phenyl column within 30 min. The system was tested with plant ext racts and unknown taxanes were identified by LC-MS with an electrospra y interface. A specialty 'taxane' column also achieved a baseline reso lution of the 13 taxanes, but in 55 min. The developed methods were ap plied to the analysis of plant extracts. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V .