Characteristic Fingerprint Analysis of Mallotus philippinensis by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

The developing countries mostly trust on traditional remedies, which include the use of different plant extracts or the bioactive phytoconstituents. For this purpose, analysis such as chemical fingerprinting strongly represents one of the best possibilities in searching of new economic and therapeutically effective plants for medicine. Mallotus philippinensis Muell. Arg (Euphorbiaceae) is a large genus of the trees and shrubs mainly distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions and are reported to have widespread range of pharmacological activities. A new, simple and rapid ultraperformance liquid chromatography (UPLC) method with photodiode array (PDA) detector has been developed. Further confirmation was performed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) for the chemical fingerprint analysis in extracts of Mallotus philippinensis. The chromatographic separations were obtained on a Waters ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 (2.1 mm × 50 mm, 1.7 μm) column using a gradient elution with 0.1% (v/v) formic acid/water and acetonitrile as mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. The UPLC-PDA-ESI-MS characteristic fingerprints were established and 7 characteristic peaks were identified along with 5 unknown peaks within 4.5 min by comparing the retention times, λ max (nm), and MS spectra with the literature data. Therefore, this fingerprint analysis method can be applied for the identification and quality control of Mallotus philippinensis.