Fast, sensitive and selective liquid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric determination of tumor-promoting diterpene eaters

A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS-MS) method was deve loped to detect tumor-promoting diterpene esters of the tigliane and ingena ne types within plant extracts. Fractionation on a C-18 high-performance li quid chromatography (HPLC) column was followed by MS-MS-multiple reaction m onitoring (MRM) using the precursor--> product ion pairs of m/z 311-->293 a nd 293-->265 for phorbol esters. The ion pairs m/z 313-->295 and 295-->267 were used for ingenol and deoxyphorbol esters. In a second run, the charact eristic ions at m/z 311 and 313 were followed in precursor ion scan mode. T hese quasi-molecular ions were utilized to obtain full scan spectra of the compounds in product ion scan mode. Due to its selectivity, the present on- line method can be applied for plant cultivar selection and plant product c ontrol without time-consuming extraction procedures and complex bioassays. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.