Simultaneous determination of vinblastine and its monomeric precursors vindoline and catharanthine in Catharanthus roseus by capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry

Abstract

Catharanthus roseus is an important dicotyledonous medicinal plant that contains various anticancer components, such as vinblastine (VLB) and its monomeric precursors (vindoline and catharanthine). A capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) approach for the simultaneous determination of three components was developed in this work. Baseline separation for three components was achieved by using a running buffer consisting of 20 mM ammonium acetate and 1.5% acetic acid in <20 min. Quantification of three components was assigned in positive-ion mode at a protonated molecular ion [M+H] +. The CE-MS method was validated for linearity, sensitivity, accuracy and precision, and then used to determine the content of the above components. The detection limits of VLB, catharanthine and vindoline are 0.8, 0.1 and 0.1 μg/mL, respectively. The precision was not more than 4.54% and the mean recovery of the analytes was 95.04-97.04%. The CE-MS method was successfully applied to determine VLB and its monomeric precursors in real sample C. roseus. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.