Determination of Alkaloids in<i>Catharanthus roseus</i>and<i>Vinca minor</i>by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Many plants in the family Apocynaceae have been used for medicinal purposes. Catharanthus roseus and Vinca minor are the most important medicinal plants that belong to the Apocynaceae family. A procedure is reported for the determination of the bioactive alkaloids tabersonine, serpentine, vindoline, catharanthine, tryptamine, and vincamine in Apocynaceae plants (C. roseus and V. minor) by liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Quantitation was performed from positive multiple reactions at 161.4 → 144.2, 349.4 → 263.0, 457.6 → 188.0, 337.5 → 168.3, 337.4 → 144.2, 355.4 → 337.2, and 854.5 → 286.4 for tryptamine, serpentine, vindoline, tabersonine, catharanthine, vincamine, and paclitaxel (the internal standard), respectively. The optimized method was employed for the determination of the active alkaloids in the leaves of C. roseus and V. minor by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry.