Abstract
A high-performance liquid chromatographic/tandem mass spectrometric method was developed for the determination of the major bioactive flavonolignans in silymarin, a herbal remedy extracted from the milk thistle Silybum marianum. In this study, eight active components of silymarin with the same elemental composition, including silychristins A and B, silydianin, silybin A and B, isosilybin A and B and an unknown compound were completely separated. Furthermore, three additional components were detected and partly separated; presumably two silybin stereoisomers and one isosilybin stereoisomer. The collision-induced dissociation (CID) MS/MS spectra of these silymarin constituents were studied: the spectral similarity values of the component pairs were determined, and simple criteria were found for distinguishing the components.
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Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by the grant Hungary–Romania Cross-Border Co-operation Programme HURO/0901/058/2.2.2.
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Kuki, Á., Nagy, L., Deák, G. et al. Identification of Silymarin Constituents: An Improved HPLC–MS Method. Chromatographia 75, 175–180 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10337-011-2163-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10337-011-2163-7