Ion Mobility ‐Mass Spectrometry for the Separation and Analysis of Procyanidins

AbstractProcyanidins are polymeric flavan ‐3‐ones occurring in many plants with antioxidant and other beneficial bioactivities. Composed of catechin and epicatechin monomeric units connected by single carbon‐carbon B‐type linkages or A‐type linkages containing both carbon‐carbon and carbon‐oxygen‐carbon bonds. Their polymeri c structure makes analysis of procyanidin mixtures always difficult. Evaluation of procyanidins according to degree of polymerization (DP) using HPLC is time consuming and at best has resolved polymeric families up to DP‐17. To expedite studies of procyanidins, the utility of positive ion electros pray ion mobility‐mass spectrometry (IM‐MS) was investigated for the rapid separation and characterization of procyanidins in mixtures. Applying IM‐MS to analyze structurally defined standards containing up to 5 subunits, procyanidins could be resolved in less than 6 ms not only by degree of p olymerization but also by linkage type. A‐type procyanidins could be resolved from B‐type and both could be at least partially resolved from mixed‐type procyanidins of the same DP. IM‐MS separated higher order procyanidins with DP of at least 24 from extracts of cranberry. As DP increased, t he abundances of multiply charged procyanidins also increased. During IM‐MS of ions of similarm/z, the ion drift times decreased inversely with increasing charge state. Therefore, IM ‐MS was shown to separate mixtures of procyanidins containing at le...
Source: Journal of Mass Spectrometry - Category: Chemistry Authors: Tags: SPECIAL ISSUE ‐ RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research