A Highly Sensitive Determination of Sesquiterpenes and Curcumin Compounds from Radix Curcumae by Ultra-High Performance Supercritical Fluid Chromatography Coupled with Drift Tube Ion Mobility Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

A highly sensitive method was developed for simultaneously separating and identifying multiple compounds in radix curcumae. It is a challenging work. The determination of these compounds is achieved by the combination supercritical fluid chromatography with drift tube ion mobility quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Related parameters are optimized: the RX-SIL column was used as stationary phase, methanol was selected as organic modifier, backpressure 120 bar, back temperature 60 °C, the mobile phase flow rate 1.75 mL/min, the makeup solvent 0.2% FA/MeOH, the make-up pump flow rate 0.7 mL/min. Under the optimal conditions, multipolar compounds were separated. Furthermore, these compounds were identified by the values of collision sectional areas. The established method was verified by related parameters and exhibited good linearity, sensitivity, precision, and accuracy. It could be extended to analyze other curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids in natural products.