Characterization of tropane and cinnamamide alkaloids from Scopolia tangutica by high performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry.

Scopolia tangutica is a traditional Chinese medicine used for antispasmodic, anesthesia, analgesia and sedation. Its medicinal activity is associated to alkaloid constituents, including tropane and cinnamamide types. Low content of alkaloids in plant makes them difficult to be isolated and identified. The present work developed an effective method to quickly characterize alkaloids from Scopolia tangutica by HPLC coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry. Thirteen reference compounds were studied for their fragmentation pathways, including five tropane alkaloids and eight cinnamamide ones. Alkaloid constituent was analyzed by an optimized HPLC method and MS analysis to achieve systematic characterization of alkaloids from Scopolia tangutica. As a result, 53 compounds were identified, including 21 tropane alkaloids (8 new ones), 18 caffeoyl ones (10 new ones) and 14 dicaffeoyl ones (7 new ones). It was important to provide rich information in phytochemical study and structure-guided isolation of important compounds from this plant. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.