Monodimensional and comprehensive liquid chromatography linked to mass spectrometry for unravelling bioactive components in medicinal plants

There is considerable evidence nowadays that dietary flavonoids and other phenolic components may exert preventive and/or therapeutic effects in a role of human diseases. Despite the great interest in determining the role of phytonutrients as potential therapeutic agents, and the rising demand of natural sources with nutraceutic benefits, the antioxidant content of many medicinal plants and foodstuffs is unknown, making accurate estimation for human dietary consumption and the correlation to human diseases difficult. High resolution chromatographic techniques and specific and accurate detection may represent a key solution to obtain the identification power required for a complete knowledge on the qualitative composition and contents of these natural sources. This represents mandatory information, for rationale consumption and correlation of beneficial effects to dietary intake. This presentation will show applications of monodimensional and multidimensional comprehensive LC techniques to the study of bioactive compounds in medicinal plants extracts (Mulberry, Mate, Juniperus), by online coupling to quadrupole or IT-TOF mass detection. Identification of the separated constituents is carried out on the basis of the complementary information obtained from their migration times, diode array spectra, MS ions, and MS/MS fragments (obtained by CID experiments). Chromatographic resolution will benefit from the employment of partially porous stationary phases (2.7μm d.p.), while the high mass accuracy and resolution of detection will help in unambiguous structural assignment of unknown molecules