Purification And Mass Spectral Characterization Of Alkaloids In Evodia Rutaecarpa

In this paper, the alkaloids in Evodia Rutaecarpa which is a widely used Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) were studied for the classical separation, purification and fragmentation regularity of mass spectrometry. Firstly, the preparative method for classical components was established. The separation of alkaloids and non-alkaloids, indole alkaloids and quinolone alkaloids in Evodia Rutaecarpa could be achieved by methanol extraction-water precipitation method and C18solid phase extraction (C18SPE), respectively. It’s an effective way to remove impurities and reduce complexity of TMC. Compounds purification was based on the classical components. To improve the solubility, evodiamine and rutaecarpine as the major indole alkaloids were obtained on "click" binaphthyl stationary phase by normal phase liquid chromatography (NPLC). The minor indole alkaloids were purified by two dimentional reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC x RPLC). For quinolone alkaloids, reversed phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) was used for fast purification of4quinolone alkaloids. Moreover, the fragmentation regularities of8indole alkaloids and11quinolone alkaloids were studied by LC-ESI-MS/MS. Most indole alkaloids have the Retro Diels-Alder (RDA) fragmentation while quinolone alkaloids have the electronic rearragmentation between mother nucleus and carbon chain to generate characteristic fragment ions m/z173and m/z186. The fragmentation regularities can be applied for quick identification of the two alkaloids.