HPLC−Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Antimalarial Drug Artemisinin

Abstract

A new analytical method for high-sensitivity direct detection, quantitation, and isotopomer analysis of antimalarial drug artemisinin (qinghaosu) is described using HPLC−electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, without pre- or postcolumn derivatization. The method has been shown to be particularly suitable for analysis of artemisinin in biosynthetic stable isotope labeling experiments and quantitative analysis in the nanogram range in crude biological samples such as Artemisia annua plant extracts. The method enabled isotopomer analysis in biosynthetic 18 O-labeling experiments with plant cell-free enzyme preparation.