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Identification and Quantification of Aconitines and Colchicine in Serum, Urine, and Plants using MonoSpin C18 and LC-MSMS

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Abstract

Aconitum and Colchicum are known to be highly toxic plants based on their respective toxins, namely aconite and colchicine. Aconite and colchicine poisoning generally occurs because of misidentification and contamination, and is also associated with homicide and suicide cases. The detection of aconitines and colchicine in body fluids and leftovers plays an important role in clinical and forensic toxicology investigation of suspected food poisoning by natural poisons. Therefore, we have developed and validated a rapid determination of aconitine, hypaconitine, jesaconitine, mesaconitine, and colchicine in serum, urine, and plants using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. All targeted compounds, together with internal standards, were extracted from serum and urine using a C18 monolithic spin column. Recovery of all compounds from serum, spiked at concentrations of 0.1, 0.8, 6, and 18 ng mL−1, ranged from 96.8 to 101.4 %. Recovery of all compounds from urine, spiked at concentrations of 0.1, 8, 80 and 190 ng mL−1, ranged from 96.6 to 101.9 %. The intra- and inter-assay accuracy and precision (expressed as relative standard deviation, %RSD) evaluated for all compounds were within 96.7–103.2 % and 1.7–11.5 %, respectively. Detection limits and quantitation limits of aconitines and colchicine for serum and urine were 0.05 and 0.1 ng mL−1, respectively. This method had a chromatographic run time of 7.0 min. Calibration curves for serum and urine ranged from 0.1 to 20 ng mL−1 for serum and 0.1–200 ng mL−1 for urine, respectively. The validated method was successfully applied to clinical aconitine and colchicine poisoning cases.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (No. 25460878) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Tokai University School of Medicine, 143 Shimokasuya, Isehara, Kanagawa, 259-1143, Japan

    Takeshi Saito, Rimako Umebachi & Sadaki Inokuchi

  2. Department of Forensic Medicine, Institute of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

    Akira Namera

  3. GL Sciences Inc., Tokyo, Japan

    Hiroshi Oikawa & Shota Miyazaki

  4. Department of Emergency Medicine, Iwate Medical University School of Medicine, Morioka, Japan

    Yuji Fujita

Authors
  1. Takeshi Saito
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  2. Rimako Umebachi
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  3. Akira Namera
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  4. Hiroshi Oikawa
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  5. Shota Miyazaki
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  6. Yuji Fujita
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  7. Sadaki Inokuchi
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Correspondence to Takeshi Saito.

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Saito, T., Umebachi, R., Namera, A. et al. Identification and Quantification of Aconitines and Colchicine in Serum, Urine, and Plants using MonoSpin C18 and LC-MSMS. Chromatographia 78, 1041–1048 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10337-015-2921-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10337-015-2921-z

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