Analysis of pyrrolizidine alkaloids

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) are produced by numerous plant species and oc cur throughout the world. They are produced by plant species mainly within plant families such as Boraginaceae, Asteraceae, and Leguminosae. A great n umber of these alkaloids are not only toxic but also carcinogenic, mutageni c and teratogenic. These harmful effects have caused huge problems both in humans and livestoc k. Modern techniques have been applied to the isolation, purification and quan tification of the alkaloids. Improved analytical methods have been develope d for the determination of very low levels of alkaloids in plants, food, me dicinal herbs, milk, honey and other biological material. The customary analytical methods and their applications are briefly describ ed in this paper, whereas those methods used exclusively for the structure elucidation of the individual alkaloids such as infrared spectroscopy, the different variants of H-1- und C-13-NMR spectroscopy, and Xray spectroscopy are not depicted.