TLC-MS VERSUS TLC-LC-MS FINGERPRINTS OF HERBAL EXTRACTS. PART II. PHENOLIC ACIDS AND FLAVONOIDS

Abstract

In the previous paper from this series, we proposed mass spectrometric fingerprinting of a complex and volatile botanical sample upon an example of the essential oil derived from Salvia lavandulifolia. In that paper, we compared two variants of fractionation of such a mixture. A simpler one-dimensional variant consisted of the low-temperature thin-layer chromatographic fractionation coupled with mass spectrometric fingerprinting of each separated fraction (1D LT TLC-MS). A more sophisticated variant was the two-dimensional liquid chromatographic system composed of the low-temperature thin-layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, and mass spectrometric detection (2D LT TLC-LC-MS). In this study, we present an analogous approach to the non-volatile botanical mixtures upon an example of the pharmacologically important phenolic acids and flavonoids selectively extracted from Salvia lavandulifolia. With these non-volatile fractions, the thin-layer chromatographic separations were carried out at ambient temperature (21 ± 0.5°C). Once again, we compared two variants of fractionation. A simpler one-dimensional variant consisted of the thin-layer chromatographic mode coupled with mass spectrometric fingerprinting of each separated fraction (1D TLC-MS). A more sophisticated variant was the two-dimensional liquid chromatographic system composed of the thin-layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography, with mass spectrometric detection (2D TLC-LC-MS). As expected, the two-dimensional mode proved better performing than the one-dimensional mode (1D TLC-MS). It was concluded that thin-layer chromatography directly or indirectly coupled with mass spectrometric detection can prove very useful in the analysis of the phenolic acid and flavonoid fraction selectively extracted from botanical material.