Evaluation of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in conjunction with chemometric resolution for identification of nitrogen compounds in crude oil

A chemometric resolution method is described for the identification of nitrogen compounds in crude oil. Prefractionation of crude oil into discrete chemical classes was performed by adsorption column chromatography using small quantities of neutral aluminum oxide and silicic acid. Subsequent high-resolution separation of individual components was achieved by using capillary column gas chromatography, and compound types were detected by mass spectrometer. In conjunction with a combined chemometric method, each principal chemical class was further resolved and separated, which made it possible to identify some nitrogen compounds in the investigated oils. To a certain extent, this method could relieve classical analysis of difficulty in identifying those species with poorly low contents or partially chromatographic overlaps, particularly in the cases where authentic standards were not available for addition into the unknown analytical systems to reveal what indeed existed in them.     

Comparison of the volatile constituents of different parts of Cortex magnolia officinalis by GC‐MS combined with chemometric resolution method

Volatile compositions of different parts (stem, branch and root barks) of Cortex magnolia officinalis, cultivated in China, were investigated for the first time by GC‐MS with the help of heuristic evolving latent projection (HELP). Identification of components was conducted by similarity matching to NIST mass library but also assisted by comparison of temperature‐programmed retention indices (PTRIs) with the data web available. A total of 90, 82 and 76 volatile compounds in the essential oils of the three samples taken from the same batch aforementioned were qualitatively and quantitatively determined, representing 84.03, 83.68 and 83.10% of the total content, respectively. Among the constituents determined, there were 50 components coexisting. Eudesmol and its isomers were shown to be the principal compounds in the studied samples, accounting for 47.66, 36.74 and 36.31%, respectively. The three kinds of isomers (α‐, β‐ and γ‐eudesmol) in houpo volatile oils have been tentatively qualified and quantified simultaneously for the first time. By comparative analysis, significant qualitative and semi‐quantitative differences and similarities were observed among the three samples. The results achieved provide a scientific evidence for further exploitation of Magnolia bark and clinical medication.     

Discrimination of Acori Tatarinowii Rhizoma and Acori Calami Rhizoma based on quantitative gas chromatographic fingerprints and chemometric methods

This study was conducted to investigate the chemical differences between Acori Tatarinowii Rhizoma and Acori Calami Rhizoma using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry and chemometric methods. Quantitative fingerprints were established. A total of 90 volatile compounds were identified and quantified using heuristic evolving latent projection and retention index. An efficient model based on partial least squares‐discriminant analysis coupled with variable iterative space shrinkage approach was developed to distinguish Acori Tatarinowii Rhizoma from Acori Calami Rhizoma. The correct rate was 95.83%, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 100%. Finally, three volatiles, namely, camphor, longicyclene, and δ‐cadinene, were selected as key discrimination factors between Acori Tatarinowii Rhizoma and Acori Calami Rhizoma. The proposed protocol can serve as a valid strategy for quality control and screening of potential bioactive components of herbal medicines.     

Comparative analysis of the volatile components in cut tobacco from different locations with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and combined chemometric methods

A combined approach of subwindow factor analysis and orthogonal projection resolution was used to analyze the volatile components of cut tobacco samples from different sources. After extracted with simultaneous distillation and extraction method, the volatile components in cut tobacco from five different locations were detected by GC-MS. Then, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the volatile components of cut tobacco from Changde area was completed with the help of subwindow factor analysis resolving two-dimensional original data into pure mass spectra and chromatograms. One hundred and two volatile components among 138 separated peaks were identified and quantified, accounting for about 88.90% of the total content. Finally, orthogonal projection method was used to extract the common peaks from different locations. Among the identified components, there were 74 components coexisting in five studied samples although the relative content of each component showed difference to some extent. The results showed a fair consistency in their GC-MS fingerprints. It was the first time to apply orthogonal projection method to compare different cut tobacco samples, and it reduced the burden of qualitative analysis as well as the subjectivity. The obtained results proved the combined approach powerful for the analysis of complex cut tobacco samples. The developed method can be used to compare the sameness and differences of cut tobacco from different sources and for quality control of cigarette production and materials.     

Liquid chromatography fractionation with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and preparative gas chromatography-nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of selected nonylphenol polyethoxylates

Commercial nonylphenol polyethoxylates, designated as NPnEOs, where n is the number of ethoxy groups, comprise a range of ethoxylate groups. According to the starting material nonylphenol, they may also be composed of a complex mix of isomeric nonyl substituents. In order to study more fully the heterogeneity arising from both the ethoxylate and nonyl groups, a mixture of NPnEOs is first fractionated by normal phase liquid chromatography (NPLC) into separate fractions comprising individual ethoxymers, n. Preparative collection of each early elution ethoxymer fraction allows further separation of different isomeric nonyl group components by using analytical gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The nonyl isomers are not resolved in the NPLC method. The distribution of the isomeric nonyl side chain of different ethoxymers bears close resemblance with each other, and also with the original nonylphenol starting material, although separation efficiency of the nonyl isomers for each ethoxymer decreases with increasing ethoxymer number. Mass spectrometry of the separated isomers display close similarity for presumed equivalent isomers in each fraction, based on elution order of the nonyl isomers. This suggests that each corresponding peak has the same isomer structure. Mass spectra are interpreted based on branching within the nonyl side chain. Preparative GC coupled with MS and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy elucidated the molecular structure of one of the resolved isomers as 4-(1,3-dimethyl-1-propyl-butyl)-phenol diethoxylate.     

Resolution of multicomponent overlapped peaks A comparison of several curve resolution methods

Several curve resolution methods were compared in their performance of identification and quantification of overlapping peaks. These resolution methods are heuristic evolving latent projections (HELP), sub-window factor analysis (SFA), and orthogonal projection resolution (OPR). In this paper, HELP, SFA and OPR with the rank map produced by evolving factor analysis (EFA) or fixed size moving window-evolving factor analysis (FSMW-EFA) were applied to the simulated and experimental data. The resolved results were compared qualitatively and quantitatively. In addition, the further comparison was carried out with the results obtained from multivariate curve resolution-alternate least square (MCR-ALS) by using the initial estimates provided by EFA.     

Simultaneous sonication-assisted extraction, and determination by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, of di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, nonylphenol, nonylphenol ethoxylates and polychlorinated biphenyls in sludge from wastewater treatment plants

Di-(2-ethyl-hexyl)phthalate (DEHP), nonylphenol, nonylphenol mono- and diethoxylates (NPEs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are organic pollutants in sewage sludge which have to be monitored in the European Union according to a future Sludge Directive. In the present work, an analytical method for the simultaneous extraction and determination of DEHP, NPEs and PCBs is proposed for the routine analysis of these compounds in sludge from wastewater treatment plants. All the compounds were simultaneously extracted by sonication with hexane and analysed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in electronic impact mode. Recoveries achieved were 105% for DEHP, 61.4-88.6% for NPEs and 55.8-108.3% for PCBs with relative standard deviation bellow 10%. Limits of quantification were 65 μg kg⁻¹ for DEHP, from 630 to 2504 μg kg⁻¹ for NPEs and from 5.4 to 10.6 μg kg⁻¹ for PCBs in dried sludge. The applicability of the proposed method was evaluated by the determination of these compounds in sludge from wastewater treatment plants in Seville (South Spain).     

Rapid identification of anti‐inflammatory compounds from Tongmai Yangxin Pills by liquid chromatography with high‐resolution mass spectrometry and chemometric analysis

We present an integrated approach to rapidly identify anti‐inflammatory compounds of TongmaiYangxin Pills (TMYXP), a botanical drug for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Liquid chromatography coupled with high‐resolution mass spectrometry was used to analyze the chemical composition of TMYXP. Eighty compounds of TMYXP including flavonoids, coumarins, iridoid glycosides, saponins, and lignans, were identified unambiguously or tentatively. After the rapid isolation and bioassay, 18 fractions of TMYXP were obtained and their anti‐inflammatory activities were evaluated in lipopolysaccharide‐stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages. We performed chemometric analysis to reveal the correlation between the chemical and pharmacological information of the fractions to facilitate the identification of active compounds. To verify the reliability of the proposed method in discovering active components from a complex mixture, activities of seven compounds, which were positively or negatively related to bioactivity according to calculation, were validated in vitro. Results indicated that six active compounds with high R values exerted certain anti‐inflammatory effects in a dose‐dependent manner with IC₅₀ values of 53.6–204.1 μM. Our findings suggest that the integrated use of identification based on high‐resolution mass spectrometry and chemometric methods could rapidly identify active compounds from complex mixture of natural products.     

Development of a method for analysis of Iranian damask rose oil: combination of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with Chemometric techniques

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) combined with Chemometric resolution techniques were proposed as a method for the analysis of volatile components of Iranian damask rose oil. The essential oil of damask rose was extracted using hydrodistillation method and analyzed with GC-MS in optimized conditions. A total of 70 components were identified using similarity searches between mass spectra and MS database. This number was extended to 95 components with concentrations higher than 0.01% accounting for 94.75% of the total relative content using Chemometric techniques. For the first time in this work, an approach based upon subspace comparison is used for determination of the chemical rank of GC-MS data. The peak clusters were resolved using heuristic evolving latent projection (HELP) and multivariate curve resolution-alternating least square (MCR-ALS) by applying proper constraints, and the combination of both methods for some cases. It is concluded that a thorough analysis of the complex mixtures such as Iranian damask rose requires sophisticated GC-MS coupled with the Chemometric techniques.     

Comparative analysis of essential oils from eight herbal medicines with pungent flavor and cool nature by GC–MS and chemometric resolution methods

Systematic comparative research was conducted on essential oils from eight traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) of pungent flavor and cool nature because the essential oils are the main active ingredients of herbs of this kind. The work was based on their component analysis by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), on their retention indices, as well as on chemometric resolution methods. A total of 144 compounds were tentatively identified, accounting for 69.0% to 91.8% of the total essential oils. It is worth noting that there are 67 compounds in at least three of these eight essential oils. Moreover, many biologically active compounds, such as hexanal, α‐pinene, camphene, β‐pinene, p‐cymene, limonene, eucalyptol, (Z)‐ocimene, γ‐terpinene, camphor, p‐menthone, 4‐terpineol, α‐terpineol, carvone, eugenol, caryophyllene, β‐farnesene, α‐curcumene, β‐selinene, δ‐cadinene, caryophyllene oxide, cedrol, n‐hexadecanoic acid, benzaldehyde, benzeneacetaldehyde, phthalic acid diisobutyl ester, linoleic acid, tetradecanoic acid, (Z,Z,Z)‐9,12,15‐octadecatrienoic acid, eucalyptol, pentadecanoic acid, hexadecanoic acid methyl ester, linoleic acid methyl ester, exist in at least four of the eight essential oils. These results might help us to understand why the eight herbs are all of pungent flavor and cool nature according to the theory of TCM, and may provide a useful chemical basis for future research on herbs of this kind.     

Discovery of mass spectral characteristics and automatic identification of wax esters from gas chromatography mass spectrometry data

The mass spectral characteristics of wax esters were systemically summarized and interpreted through data mining of their standard mass spectra taken from NIST standard mass spectral library. Combining with the rules of retention indices described in the previous study, an automatic system was subsequently developed to identify the structural information for wax esters from GC/MS data. After tested and illustrated by both simulated and real GC/MS data, the results indicate that this system could identify wax esters except the polyunsaturated ones and the mass spectral characteristics are useful and effective information for identification of wax esters.     

Fingerprint developing of coffee flavor by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and combined chemometrics methods

In this paper, chromatographic fingerprint was firstly used for quality control of tobacco flavors. Based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and combined chemometrics methods, a simple, reliable and reproducible method for developing chromatographic fingerprint of coffee flavor, one of tobacco flavors, was described. Six coffee flavor samples obtained from different locations were used to establish the fingerprint. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of coffee flavor sample from Shenzhen was completed with the help of subwindow factor analysis (SFA). Fifty-two components of 68 separated constituents in coffee flavor sample from Shenzhen, accounting for 88.42% of the total content, were identified and quantified. Then, spectral correlative chromatography (SCC) was used to extract the common peaks from other five studied coffee flavor samples. Thirty-eight components were found to exist in all six samples. Finally, the method validation of fingerprint analysis was performed based on the relative retention time and the relative peak area of common peaks, sample stability and similarity analysis. The similarities of six coffee flavor samples were more than 0.9104 and showed that samples from different locations were consistent to some extent. The developed chromatographic fingerprint was successfully used to differentiate coffee flavor from coco flavor and some little difference sample prepared with coffee flavor and coco flavor by both similarity comparison and principal component projection analysis. The developed method can be used for quality control of coffee flavor.     

Analysis of Iranian rosemary essential oil: application of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry combined with chemometrics

This paper focuses on characterization of the components of Iranian rosemary essential oil using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Multivariate curve resolution (MCR) approach was used to overcome the problem of background, baseline offset and overlapping/embedded peaks in GC-MS. The analysis of GC-MS data revealed that sixty eight components exist in the rosemary essential oil. However, with the help of MCR this number was extended to ninety nine components with concentrations higher than 0.01%, which accounts for 98.23% of the total relative content of the rosemary essential oil. The most important constituents of the Iranian rosemary are 1,8-cineole (23.47%), α-pinene (21.74%), berbonone (7.57%), camphor (7.21%) and eucalyptol (4.49%).     

程序升温大体积进样和解卷积气相色谱-质谱法测定蔬菜水果中32种农药残留量

建立了蔬菜、水果中有机磷、有机氯、拟除虫菊酯和氨基甲酸酯等32种农药的气相色谱-质谱(GC-MS)检测方法。样品经乙腈提取,石墨碳黑串联丙氨基固相萃取柱净化,采用程序升温大体积进样,GC-MS全扫描模式采集,结合解卷积技术定性分析,内标法定量。分别对程序升温和大体积进样等条件进行了研究,并考察了方法选择性和耐用性。在最优条件下,32种农药的响应值与浓度呈良好的线性关系(r>0.995),各农药的方法检出限为2.0~5.0 μg/kg,以菠菜、四季豆和黄瓜为代表基质,进行3个水平(0.010~0.50 mg/kg)的加标回收试验(n=6),回收率为65.2%~120.3%,相对标准偏差(RSD)为4.1%~22.3%。该方法快速、灵敏、可靠、耐用,能满足蔬菜、水果中多类多残留痕量分析的要求。     

固相萃取-气相色谱法测定合成气制烯烃产物中的含氧化合物

采用C18固相萃取技术对合成气制烯烃(SGTO)的产物进行预处理,将产物分离为含氧化合物与烃类,采用气相色谱-质谱法(GC-MS)考察分离效果并鉴定产物中的含氧化合物,使用氢焰离子化检测(FID)定量实际样品中的含氧化合物,使用其正构2-酮、正构醇的响应因子作为同碳数酮、醇的FID响应因子。优化C18小柱洗脱条件,使用标准样品比较预处理前后的方法回收率。醇类标准品回收率为88%~98%,酮类标准品回收率为64%~87%。在197~4785 mg/L范围内,标准品具有较好的线性关系,相关系数均大于0.99。定性并定量测定了SGTO产物中的67种含氧化合物,发现正构醇、正构2-酮为SGTO产物中的主要含氧化合物,同时存在少量其他异构体。该方法操作简单、快速、样品需求量小,并能够在10 min内完成样品的预处理。分析结果为SGTO工艺催化剂、动力学深入研究提供了必要的基础数据。     

Determination of the structure of glycolaldehyde as their trimethylsilyl derivatives by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Summary The structure of glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde was determined using gas chromatography — mass spectrometry. Glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde, mixed with lactic acid, 2-furoic acid, furoin, xylose and ascorbic acid were separated on a capillary column coated with SE-52 as trimethylsilyl derivatives. The mass spectra show two dimeric forms for TMS-glycolaldehyde and one dimeric form for TMS-glyceraldehyde.     

顶空固相微萃取-气相色谱-质谱联用快速分析八角茴香中风味物质

采用顶空固相微萃取与气相色谱-质谱联用技术,对八角茴香中风味物质进行了分析。选用自制聚丙烯酸树脂涂层,对样品量、萃取时间、萃取温度、解吸时间等参数进行了优化,结果表明0．10g样品在60℃水浴中顶空萃取40min,250℃下解吸2min达到最佳条件。比较了顶空固相微萃取与传统水蒸气蒸馏两种前处理方法,分析结果非常相似。该方法可用于快速分析八角茴香中的风味物质。     

A new strategy for the discovery of epimedium metabolites using high-performance liquid chromatography with high resolution mass spectrometry

In this paper, a new strategy of drug metabolite discovery and identification was established using high-performance liquid chromatography with high resolution mass spectrometry (HPLC–HRMS) and a mass spectral trees similarity filter (MTSF) technique. The MTSF technique was developed as a means to rapidly discover comprehensive metabolites from multiple active components in a complicated biological matrix. Using full-scan mass spectra as the stem and data-dependent subsequent stage mass spectra to form branches, the HRMS and multiple-stage mass spectrometric data from detected compounds were converted to mass spectral trees data. Potential metabolites were discovered based on the similarity between their mass spectral trees and that known compounds or metabolites in a mass spectra trees library. The threshold value for match similarity scores was set at above 200, allowing approximately 80% of interference to be filtered out. A total of 115 metabolites of five flavonoid monomers (epimedin A, epimedin B, epimedin C, icariin, and baohuoside I) and herbal extract of epimedium were discovered and identified in rats via this new strategy. As a result, a metabolic profile for epimedium was obtained and a metabolic pathway was proposed. In addition, comparing to the widely used neutral loss filter (NLF), product ion filter (PIF), and mass defect filter (MDF) techniques, the MTSF technique was shown superior efficiency and selectivity for discovering and identifying metabolites in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).