LC-MS-MS Determination of Sanguinarine and Chelerythrine Using a HILIC Column

A simple, rapid and sensitive LC-MS method utilizing electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS-MS) has been developed to determine sanguinarine and chelerythrine in feed samples. Chromatographic separation was performed on a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography column using acetonitrile-25 mM ammonium formate buffer pH 3.2 (80 + 20 v/v) as mobile phase. Under these LC conditions, the retention times of chelerythrine and sanguinarine were 3.9 and 4.2 min, respectively. The observed fragment ions were 317, 304 and 274 m/z for sanguinarine and 332, 304 and 290 m/z for chelerythrine. The lowest concentration of standard solution injected on column and detected by LC-MS-MS was 0.15 and 0.10 mu g L(-1) for sanguinarine and chelerythrine. The limits of detection and of quantification values in feed samples were 7.5 and 25 mu g kg(-1) for sanguinarine, 5 and 15 mu g kg(-1) for chelerythrine. The recovery of the method as well as the intra-day and inter-day precision were satisfactory.