Quantification of phytochelatins in plants by reversed-phase HPLC-ESI-MS-MS

An on-line HPLC-ESI-MS-MS method has been developed for determination of glutathione and phytochelatins (PC) in plant tissues. For sample pre-treatment, dithiothreitol (DTT) must be added at the very beginning, as an anti-oxidant. Optimization of instrumental conditions i.e. composition of HPLC mobile phase, ionization efficiency of the electrospray interface, and MS-MS detection in the multiple ion-monitoring mode, are the central aspects of this work. A polystyrene-packed column was found to be superior to a standard silica-packed reversed-phase column. A concave quadratic gradient of ammonium formate buffer and acetonitrile was found to be optimum. The limits of quantitation were 0.2 mu mol kg(-1) plant tissue for glutathione and PC. The method has been applied to analysis of tissue samples from Vicia faba grown in Cd-containing nutrient solutions.