Determination of Five Alkaloids of Pericarpium Papaveris in Hot Pot Broth Using Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled to Triple Quadruple Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Simultaneous determination of five alkaloids (morphine, codeine, noscapine, thebaine, and papaverine) of pericarpium papaveris in hot pot broth was established by ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled to triple quadruple mass spectrometry (QqQ-MS). Water containing 0.1 mol/L hydrochloric acid was used as extraction solution and petroleum ether were used for fat removal. Then, the water-phase extracts were purified by an Oasis MCX cartridge. After separation by a BEH C18 (50 × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm) column, five alkaloids were detected by mass spectrometry in the positive electrospray ionization with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM). The linear ranges were 0.1–10.0 μg/kg for morphine, codeine, and thebaine, as well as 0.01–1.0 μg/kg for papaverine and noscapine, respectively. The limits of quantification (LOQs) for morphine, codeine, and thebaine were 0.1 μg/kg and for papaverine and noscapine were 0.01 μg/kg. Mean recoveries at three spiked concentrations for the objectives were varied from 72.1 % to 124 %. The method was employed in real samples and demonstrated its rapidness and high sensibility.