Determination of Alkaloids in Catharanthus roseus and Vinca minor by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

Many plants in the family Apocynaceae have been used for medicinal purposes.Catharanthus roseusandVinca minorare 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. roseusandV. 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 ofC. roseusandV. minorby liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]