Fragmentation study of aminoalcohol-diterpenoid alkaloids by electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Abstract

Aminoalcohol-diterpenoid alkaloids were found to be a group of cardioactive substances in the lateral roots of Aconitum carmichaeli Debx. Studies on the fragmentation behaviors and features of these alkaloids in mass spectrometry would be important for their structural identification and in vivo metabolic research, which has not received much attention thus far. In this study, the fragmentation behaviors of 14 aminoalcohol-diterpenoid alkaloids were investigated by utilizing high-resolution time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry. By analysis of the obtained MS(2) data, we summarized the fragmentation features of the corresponding alkaloids under different collision energy. The dissociation of functional groups from the skeleton was observed as the main fragmentation way in electrospray ionization (ESI) mode. The order of fragmentation sites was C1/C3 > C16 > C15 > C6 > N, with loss of one or more CH3OH, H2O, C2H4 (substituent on N atom) or CO (at C15 ) groups. The first systematic investigations on the fragmentation of aminoalcohol-diterpenoid alkaloids are described in this paper, setting the stage for an in-depth identification and study of the corresponding components in complex systems.