Negative‐ion fast atom bombardment and tandem mass spectrometric investigation of phenylpropanoid glycosides isolated from Polygonum pensylvanicum L.

Abstract

AbstractInvestigation of the novel phenylpropanoid sucrose esters vanicoside A, vanicoside B and hydropiperoside, derived from Polygonum pensylvanicum L., by negative‐ion fast atom bombardment and tandem mass spectrometry has elucidated collision‐induced decomposition pathways and identified common trends of fragmentation for this class of compounds. The constant neutral loss spectrum of the crude extract of P. pensylvanicum, monitoring the loss of a p‐coumaryl ketene fragment, can be used to identify homologues in the mixture for further investigation. This information can be used to characterize mixtures of this type of compound without the need for derivatization and prior to chromatographic separation, providing a method for guiding the isolation of similar compounds from crude extracts of other plants in the Polygonaceae family.