A crudely purified polyhydroxyalkaloid (PHA) extract of Hyacinthoides non-scripta (Hyacinthaceae) was studied by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), liquid chromatography/sequential mass spectrometry (LC/MSn) and direct infusion atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation-mass spectrometry (APCI-MS) to determine the best method for screening plant extracts for PHAs. Direct infusion was determined to be the technique of choice to carry out rapid screening, whereas LC/MS has the potential to reveal isomeric compounds with appropriate high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) separation, and we report here a successful HPLC separation of underivatised PHAs in a crude extract. The requirement to derivatise PHAs for GC/MS analysis was found to confuse screening due to the formation of multiple derivatives. Also, the electron ionization (EI) mass spectra were of limited diagnostic value and GC/MS failed to detect high molecular weight PHA derivatives such as those of PHA-diglycosides. Two glycosides not previously reported in Hyacinthaceae were detected by direct infusion APCI-MS.
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Egan et al. (1999) studied this question.
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