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Abstract
In the previous paper from this series, we proposed mass spectrometric fingerprinting of a complex and volatile botanical sample upon an example of the essential oil derived from Salvia lavandulifolia. In that paper, we compared two variants of fractionation of such a mixture. A simpler one-dimensional variant consisted of the low-temperature thin-layer chromatographic fractionation coupled with mass spectrometric fingerprinting of each separated fraction (1D LT TLC-MS). A more sophisticated variant was the two-dimensional liquid chromatographic system composed of the low-temperature thin-layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, and mass spectrometric detection (2D LT TLC-LC-MS). In this study, we present an analogous approach to the non-volatile botanical mixtures upon an example of the pharmacologically important phenolic acids and flavonoids selectively extracted from Salvia lavandulifolia. With these non-volatile fractions, the thin-layer chromatographic separations were carried out at ambient temperature (21 ± 0.5°C). Once again, we compared two variants of fractionation. A simpler one-dimensional variant consisted of the thin-layer chromatographic mode coupled with mass spectrometric fingerprinting of each separated fraction (1D TLC-MS). A more sophisticated variant was the two-dimensional liquid chromatographic system composed of the thin-layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography, with mass spectrometric detection (2D TLC-LC-MS). As expected, the two-dimensional mode proved better performing than the one-dimensional mode (1D TLC-MS). It was concluded that thin-layer chromatography directly or indirectly coupled with mass spectrometric detection can prove very useful in the analysis of the phenolic acid and flavonoid fraction selectively extracted from botanical material.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The work of two authors (D.S. and Ł.W.) was partially supported by the PhD scholarship granted to them in 2009 within the framework of the “University as a Partner of the Economy Based on Science” (UPGOW) project, subsidized by the European Social Fund (EFS) of the European Union. The work of one author (M.N.) was supported by the post-doctoral grant no. 142062, subsidized by the Ministry of Science of Serbia. The authors wish to express their gratitude to Mrs. Małgorzata Zych from Donau Lab (Polish representative of the firm CAMAG) for kindly lending them the CAMAG TLC-MS interface and in that way enabling this research.