Combination of hollow fiber-based liquid-phase microextraction with sweeping techniques in micellar electrokinetic chromatography for the determination of Strychnos alkaloids in human urine

A new method for the enrichment of Strychnos alkaloids in biological samples via liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) based on porous polypropylene hollow fibers in combination with on-line sweeping in micellar electrokinetic chromatography was developed. The calibration curve was linear over the range of 20-200 ng mL-1 for both strychnine and brucine in human urine sample. The detection limits (S/N=3:1) for strychnine and brucine were 1 ng mL-1 and 2 ng mL-1, respectively. The LPME-sweeping method has been successfully applied to the analysis of strychnine and brucine in real urine samples.     

Capillary electrophoresis with field-enhanced stacking for rapid and sensitive determination of strychnine and brucine

A new capillary electrophoresis procedure with field-enhanced stacking concentration for the analysis of strychnine and brucine is established. After optimization of the separation and concentration conditions, the two alkaloids can be separated within 5 min and quantified with high sensitivity (The detection limits were 1.0 ng mL(-1) for strychnine and 1.4 ng mL(-1) for brucine). The method was useful for qualitative and quantitative analysis of strychnine and brucine in Strychnos nux-vomica L with recovery of 105.1% for strychnine and 98.4% for brucine.     

TLC Determination of Strychnine and Brucine of Strychnos nux vomica in Ayurveda and Homeopathy Drugs

Strychnos nux vomica is an important plant source for drugs of ayurvedic and homeopathic system of medicine. In this paper a thin layer chromatographic (TLC) method has been developed for the quantitative estimation of the two major alkaloids strychnine and brucine in the plant fruit and in ayurvedic and homeopathic drugs. Chloroform–ethyl acetate–diethyl amine (0.5:8.5:1) as mobile phase gave clear separation with no interference between the bioactive markers. The R _f values for strychnine and brucine were 0.55 and 0.42. The TLC method was found to be precise, rugged, robust and accurate with recovery of strychnine in the range 93.11–99.82% and brucine 96.95–99.48%. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for strychnine were 1.9 and 8.25 ng and for brucine 2.2 and 9.2 ng respectively.     

Determination of triazine herbicide residues in water samples by on-line sweeping concentration in micellar electrokinetic chromatography

A new method for the determination of atrazine, simazine and prometryn in water samples by on-line sweeping concentration technique in micellar electrokinetic chromatography （MEKC） was developed. Various parameters affecting sample enrichment and separation efficiency were systematically studied. Compared with the conventional MEKC method, up to 60-200-fold improvement in concentration sensitivity was achieved in terms of peak height by using this sweeping injection technique. The compound strychnine was used as the internal standard for the improvement of the experimental reproducibility. The limits of detection （S/ N = 3：1） for atrazine, simazine and prometryn were 9, 10 and 0.5 ng mL-1, respectively. This method has been successfully applied to the analysis of atrazine, simazine and prometryn in lake, steam and ground water.     

Development and validation of a TLC-densitometric method for the simultaneous quantitation of strychnine and brucine from Strychnos spp. and its formulations

A simple, sensitive, and specific thin-layer chromatography densitometric method has been developed for the simultaneous quantitation of strychnine and brucine. These two marker compounds are quantitated in the seeds of Strychnos nux-vomica, Strychnos ignatii, and its formulations. The method involves densitometric evaluation of strychnine and brucine after resolving it by high-performance TLC on silica gel plate with toluene-ethyl acetate-diethyl amine-methanol (7:2:1:0.3 v/v) as the mobile phase. The method is validated for precision (interday and intraday), repeatability, and accuracy. The relationship between the concentration of standard solutions and the peak response is linear within the concentration range of 160 to 480 ng/spot for strychnine and 80 to 480 ng/spot for brucine. Instrumental precision is found to be 0.54 and 0.78 (% CV), and repeatability of the method is 1.01 and 1.06 (% CV) for strychnine and brucine, respectively. Accuracy of the method is checked by recovery study conducted at three different levels and the average percentage recovery is found to be 99.13% for strychnine and 100.16% for brucine. The proposed HPTLC method for the simultaneous quantitation of strychnine and brucine is found to be simple, precise, specific, sensitive, and accurate, and it can be used for routine quality control of raw material of Strychnos spp. It also can be applied in quantitating any of these marker compounds in other formulations.     

On-line two-step stacking in capillary zone electrophoresis for the preconcentration of strychnine and brucine

An on-line sample preconcentration method by two-step stacking i.e., sweeping and micelle to solvent stacking, in capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) has been developed for the determination of strychnine and brucine in traditional Chinese herbal medicines. After experimental optimizations, the best separation was achieved by using 75 mM phosphate buffer (pH 2.5) with 30% methanol (v/v). Compared with normal CZE injection, 51- and 38-fold improvement in concentration sensitivity was achieved for strychnine and brucine, respectively. The calibration curve was linear in the range of 0.1–5.0 μg mL⁻¹ for both strychnine and brucine, with the correlation coefficients of 0.9998 and 0.9997, respectively. The limits of detection (S/N = 3) for both alkaloids were 0.01 μg mL⁻¹. The inter-day (n = 8) and intra-day (n = 5) reproducibilities expressed as the relative standard deviations for corrected peak area were less than 9.5%. The method was applied to determine strychnine and brucine in two Chinese herbal medicines, with recoveries ranging from 94.2% to 105.4%. The results indicated that the method is simple, rapid, reliable, and can be applied to determine strychnos alkaloids in traditional Chinese herbal medicines.     

Selective extraction of alkaloids in human urine by on-line single drop microextraction coupled with sweeping micellar electrokinetic chromatography

A novel method of on-line single drop microextraction (SDME) coupled with sweeping micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) for the selective extraction and dual preconcentration of alkaloids was developed. In this technique, analytes of three alkaloids were firstly extracted from 4.0 mL basic aqueous sample solution (donor phase, 500 mM NaOH) into a layer of n-octanol at temperature 30 °C with the stirring rate of 1150 rpm, then back-extracted into the acidified aqueous acceptor (acceptor phase, 50 mM H₃PO₄) suspended at the tip of a capillary at 650 rpm. Then, the aqueous acceptor was introduced into capillary by hydrodynamic injection with a height difference of 15 cm between the inlet and outlet of capillary for 300 s, and analyzed directly by on-line sweeping MEKC. With the selective SDME, we were able to extract three alkaloids without any interfering components in human urine samples. Under the optimum conditions, the proposed method achieved limits of detections (LOD) of between 0.2 ng mL⁻¹ and 1.5 ng mL⁻¹ with 1583–3556-fold increases in detection sensitivity for three analytes, which indicated that it was a promising method for analysis of alkaloids in human urine.     

Processing of nux vomica. II. Changes in alkaloid composition of the seeds of Strychnos nux-vomica on traditional drug-processing

In the course of our study on the drug-processing of the seeds of Strychnos nux-vomica L. (Loganiaceae), the alkaloid composition of the heat-treated seeds of S. nux-vomica was compared to that of the untreated seeds. On heat treatment, the contents of the major alkaloids such as strychnine and brucine declined significantly with increases in the amounts of isostrychnine, isobrucine, strychnine N-oxide and brucine N-oxide. The cleavage of an ether linkage and the occurrence of N-oxidation were demonstrated by heat treatment of authentic strychnine and brucine.     

Determination of Strychnine and Brucine in Strychnos nux-vomica L. by Nonaqueous Capillary Electrophoresis

A nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis method with photo diode-array detection was developed for the analysis of strychnine and brucine in Strychnos nux-vomica L. The separation of the two alkaloids was optimized with respect to the concentration of Tris-boric acid, the proportion of methanol and acetonitrile, and applied voltage. Baseline separation was obtained for the two analytes within 10 min using a running buffer containing 25 mM Tris-boric acid, 60% methanol and 20% acetonitrile with acetic acid adjusting pH to 4.0. In this paper, the method was used to determine the contents of strychnine and brucine in raw material and prepared Strychnos nux-vomica L.     

Rapid and sensitive determination of strychnine and brucine in human urine by capillary electrophoresis with field‐amplified sample stacking

A simple, rapid, sensitive and low‐cost method using capillary electrophoresis (CE) coupled with field‐amplified sample stacking (FASS) has been developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of strychnine and brucine residues in human urine. Before sample loading, a water plug (3.5 kPa, 3 s) was injected to contain sample cations and to permit FASS. Electrokinetic injection at a voltage (20 kV, 25 s) was then used to introduce cations. Separation was performed using 20 mM acetate buffer (pH 3.8) with an applied voltage of 20 kV. The calibration curves were linear over a range of 8.00–2.56 ∞ 10² ng/mL (r = 0.9995) for strychnine and 10.0–3.20 × 10² ng/mL (r = 0.9999) for brucine. Extraction recoveries in urine were greater than 79.6 and 82.8% for strychnine and brucine, respectively, with an RSD of less than 4.9%. The detection limits (signal‐to‐noise ratio 3) for strychnine and brucine were 2.00 and 2.50 ng/mL, respectively. A urine sample from one healthy female volunteer (26 years old, 50 kg) was pretreated and analyzed. Strychnine and brucine levels in urine could be detected 24 h after administration. On these grounds, this method was feasible for application to preliminary screening of trace levels of abused drugs for both doping control and forensic analysis. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Separation and determination of strychnine and brucine in Strychnos nux-vomica L. and its preparation by capillary zone electrophoresis

A capillary zone electrophoresis method was developed for the separation and determination of strychnine and brucine in Strychnos nux-vomica L. and its preparation. The factors that could affect the separation were studied, such as the types and concentrations of electrolytes, pH, ionic strength and organic modifier. The optimum running buffer was 20 mmol/L of ammonium acetate containing 0.2 mol/L of glacial acetic acid (pH 3.64). The applied voltage was 25 kV and the wavelength of the UV detector was set at 214 nm. The established method with dopamine hydrochloride as internal standard was linear in the range of 5-100 microg/mL for both strychnine and brucine. The recovery was 102.96% for strychnine and 98.56% for brucine. The extracts of Strychnos nux-vomica and its preparation could be directly injected for analysis.     

Rapid separation and identification of Strychnos alkaloids metabolites in rats by ultra high performance liquid chromatography with linear ion trap Orbitrap mass spectrometry

An in vivo study of Strychnos alkaloids metabolites in rats by ultra high performance liquid chromatography with linear ion trap Orbitrap MS is reported for the first time. Two major Strychnos alkaloids compounds including strychnine and brucine were investigated. To obtain optimal extraction efficiency, samples were pretreated by using an SPE plate. The structures of metabolites and their fragment ions were characterized based on the accurate mass and MSⁿ data. Forty‐seven metabolites were identified in rat urine, of which 25 were reported for the first time. Four new metabolism pathways were proposed on the basis of the identified metabolites. This study provides a practical approach for rapidly identifying complicated metabolites, a methodology that could be widely applied not only in forensic and clinically toxicological relevant cases, but also for the structural characterization of metabolites of other compounds.     

Use of short chain alkyl imidazolium ionic liquids for on‐line stacking and sweeping of methotrexate,flinic acid and folic acid: Their application to biological fluids

Methotrexate (MTX) is widely used for the treatment of many types of cancer. Folinic acid (FNA) and folic acid (FA) were usually simultaneously supplemented with MTX to reduce the side effects of a folate deficiency. This study, for the first time, included on‐line sample preconcentration by stacking and sweeping techniques under reduced or enhanced electric conductivity in the sample region using short chain alkyl imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) as micelle forming agents for analyte focusing. Both analyte focusing by micelle collapse (AFMC) and sweeping‐MEKC had been investigated for the comparison of their effectiveness to examine simultaneously MTX, FNA and FA in plasma and urine under physiological conditions. In sweeping‐MEKC, the sample solution without micelles was hydrodynamically injected as a long plug into a fused‐silica capillary pre‐filled with phosphate buffer containing 3.0 mol/L of 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium bromide (BMIMBr). Using AFMC, the analytes were prepared in BMIMBr micellar matrix and hydrodynamically injected into the phosphate buffer without IL micelles. The conductivity ratio between BGE and sample (γ, BGE/sample) was optimized to be 3.0 in sweeping‐MEKC and 0.33 in AFMC resulting the adequate separation of analytes within 4.0 min. To reduce the possibility of BMIMBr adsorption, an appropriate rinsing protocol was used. The limits of detection were calculated as 0.1 ng/mL MTX, 0.05 ng/mL FNA and 0.05 ng/mL FA by sweeping‐MEKC and 0.5 ng/mL MTX, 0.3 ng/mL FNA and 0.3 ng/mL FA by AFMC. The accuracy was tested by recovery in plasma and urine matrices giving values ranging between 90 and 110%. Both stacking and sweeping by BMIMBr could be successfully used for the rapid, selective and sensitive determination of pharmaceuticals in complex matrices due to its fascinating properties, including high conductivity, good thermal stability and ability to form different types of interactions by electrostatic, hydrophobic, hydrogen bonding and π–π interactions. In sweeping‐MEKC, the using of BMIMBr enhanced the γ factor, k retention factor and the injected amount of sample. Consequently, this technique offers particular potential for higher sensitivity by giving 22‐ and 5‐fold sensitivity enhancement factors (SEFs) of MTX compared to CZE and AFMC, respectively.     

马钱子与甘草配伍前后生物碱成分的变化规律

采用电喷雾质谱技术和高效液相色谱法分别对马钱子配伍甘草前后主要生物碱的变化规律进行了系统研究。实验结果表明,马钱子配伍甘草后其主要生物碱士的宁和马钱子碱的含量均有不同程度的降低,其中士的宁的含量下降显著。电喷雾质谱的实验结果与高效液相色谱的结果相吻合,为进一步阐明甘草解马钱子类药物毒性和马钱子合理配伍用药提供了科学的实验依据。     

Application of high performance capillary electrophoresis on toxic alkaloids analysis

We employed CE to identify mixtures of the toxic alkaloids lappaconitine, bullatine A, atropine sulfate, atropine methobromide, scopolamine hydrobromide, anisodamine hydrobromide, brucine, strychnine, quinine sulfate, and chloroquine in human blood and urine, using procaine hydrochloride as an internal standard. The separation employed a fused-silica capillary of 75 microm id x 60 cm length (effective length: 50.2 cm) and a buffer containing 100 mM phosphate and 5% ACN (pH 4.0). The sample was injected in a pressure mode and the separation was performed at a voltage of 16 kV and a temperature of 25 degrees C. The compounds were detected by UV absorbance at wavelengths of 195 and 235 nm. All the ten alkaloids were separated within 16 min. The method was validated with regard to precision (RSD), accuracy, sensitivity, linear range, LOD, and LOQ. In blood and urine samples, the detection limits were 5-40 ng/mL and linear calibration curves were obtained over the range of 0.02-10 microg/mL. The precision of intra- and interday measurements was less than 15%. Electrophoretic peaks could be identified either by the relative migration time or by their UV spectrum.     

On-line preconcentration and determination of ketamine and norketamine by micellar electrokinetic chromatography. Complementary method to gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

We have investigated a rapid, simple, and highly efficient on-line preconcentration method using in micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) for the analysis of abused drugs. Ketamine is an anesthetic that has been abused as a hallucinogen. We applied the sample sweeping technique first to ketamine and its major metabolite, norketamine, and separated the analytes with MEKC. Several of the sweeping MEKC parameters to effect successful separations, such as the concentration of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), the injection time, and the applied voltage were optimized. The improvements in the number of theoretical plates under the different separation conditions are presented clearly in a three-dimensional representation. The limits of detection were 2.8, 3.4, and 3.3 ng/mL for ketamine, norketamine, and ketamine-D(4), respectively. The enrichment factor for each compound was within the range of 540-800. Experimental results are in agreement with those of analysis conducted by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS). Therefore, we believe that sweeping, combined with MEKC, represents a suitable complementary method to GC/MS for use in clinical and forensic analyses of ketamine and norketamine.     

Applicability of micellar electrokinetic chromatography to the analysis of estrogens in water

Estrone, beta-estradiol and ethynylestradiol spiked in water were extracted using solid-phase extraction (SPE) and then directly determined by micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) with online concentration (sweeping). A 350 mL original sample volume (10 nM each) was concentrated to 1 mL using SPE, and ca. 240 nL of this solution was injected onto an MEKC capillary column. After sweeping, the estrogen related compounds were detected using a commercial absorbance detection system with an LOD of 0.16-0.30 nM in the original sample.     

Concentration and determination of cotinine in serum by cation-selective exhaustive injection and sweeping micellar electrokinetic chromatography

Micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC), combined with on-line concentration techniques, cation-selective exhaustive injection (CSEI) and sweeping, was developed for the analysis of cotinine, the primary biomarker for exposure to secondhand smoke. Experimental parameters including sample matrix, surfactant concentration, injection length and concentration of high-conductivity buffer, and sample electrokinetic injection time were optimized for electrophoretic enrichment and separation processes. Under the optimal conditions, the detection sensitivity of cotinine was enhanced by about 5000-fold using CSEI-sweeping MEKC compared to normal MEKC. The limit of detection for cotinine was found to be 0.2 ng/mL using ultraviolet absorbance detection. Furthermore, the developed method was successfully applied to the detection of cotinine in mouse serum samples.     

胶束毛细管电动色谱法在线富集联用技术灵敏检测乳制品和饲料样品中的三聚氰胺

建立了胶束毛细管电泳(MEKC)在线富集技术灵敏检测三聚氰胺的方法,采用场放大进样(FASS)联用胶束扫集(Sweep)测定多种样品中的三聚氰胺.试样用乙腈反复提取3次,在优化实验条件下,三聚氰胺的检测灵敏度提高了约1000倍,检出限由原来的2 mg/L降到1.8 μg/L(S/N=3).本方法用于配方奶粉和动物饲料中...     

On-line sample concentration in micellar electrokinetic chromatography with cationic micelles in a coated capillary

The electroosmotic flow was successfully suppressed even in the presence of cationic surfactants, when a polyacrylamide-coated capillary was employed. Two on-line sample concentration techniques of sample stacking and sweeping were evaluated in micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) using the polyacrylamide-coated capillary. Cationic surfactants were used as pseudostationary phases in MEKC. At least 60-fold and about 600-fold increases in detection sensitivity were obtained in terms of peak heights by sample stacking and sweeping, respectively.