Capillary electrophoresis‐mass spectrometry characterisation of secondary metabolites from the antihyperglycaemic plant Genista tenera

Abstract

Genista tenera is endemic to the Portuguese island of Madeira, where an infusion of the aerial parts of the plant is used in folk medicine as an antidiabetic agent. Consequently the medicinal properties of the secondary metabolites of this plant have been the subject of an ongoing study. A recently reported LC-MS method using a 100 min separation allowed identification of five flavonoid components in an extract of the aerial parts of this plant. In order to obtain additional information on the range and complexity of the plant's secondary metabolite components a CE-MS method has been developed and applied for the analysis of an extract of G. tenera. Twenty-six different components are distinguished in an analysis time of only 10 min. Results demonstrate that CE-MS/MS rapidly generates data complementary to those obtainable by LC-MS/MS and is particularly suited to the analysis of plant metabolites where concentration is not limiting.

Quality control of herbal medicines by capillary electrophoresis: Potential, requirements and applications

“…By preparing a solution of ammonium carbonate in a mixture of water and 2-propanol, Edwards et al [76] reported on the successful hyphenation of CE to mass spectrometry. They investigated Genista tenera, a plant endemic to Madeira, which is traditionally used to treat diabetes.…”

CE at the omics level: Towards systems biology – An update

“…Besides animal and bacterial samples, CE-MS has also been used to analyze metabolites in plant samples. The secondary metabolites of the plant Genista tenera, a traditional plant used in diabetes medication, were analyzed by Edwards et al [125]. The metabolite compounds detected included five flavonoid aglycones, flavonoid-monoglycosides, flavonoid-diglycosides, flavonoid-triglycosides, monoacetylflavonoids, diacetyl-flavonoids and acetyl-flavonoid-glycosides.…”

Profiling of primary metabolite by means of capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry and its application for plant science

“…Applications of CE-MS for not only profiling of primary metabolites, but also for secondary metabolites (Bringmann et al 2005;Edwards et al 2006b;Wahby et al 2006) and plant hormones (Ge et al 2006) have been reported. These methods achieve sensitive and high resolution analyses with high throughput manner.…”