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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Logan, Utah » Poisonous Plant Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #385576
Research Project: Understanding and Mitigating the Adverse Effects of Poisonous Plants on Livestock Production Systems

Location: Poisonous Plant Research

Title: Rapid quantitative analysis of toxic norditerpenoid alkaloids in larkspur (Delphinium spp.) by flow injection - electrospray ionization - mass spectrometry

Author
item Gardner, Dale
item Lee, Stephen
item Cook, Daniel

Submitted to: Poisonous Plant Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/14/2021
Publication Date: 9/30/2021
Citation: Gardner, D.R., Lee, S.T., Cook, D. 2021. Rapid quantitative analysis of toxic norditerpenoid alkaloids in larkspur (Delphinium spp.) by flow injection - electrospray ionization - mass spectrometry. Poisonous Plant Research. 4:10-19. https://doi.org/10.26077/jy40-h384.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26077/jy40-h384

Interpretive Summary: A mass spectrometry (MS) based method was developed for rapid analysis of larkspur plant material for toxic alkaloids and to determine the relative risk of toxicity of the larkspur plant material. The method was calibrated for alkaloid concentrations with larkspur plant samples against an existing Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy FTIR method previously used. There was a strong correlation (r = 0.9908, r = 0.9671) between the older FTIR and the new MS method. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for all measurements were = 4.5 % except for the sample with the lowest concentration which was 9%. The sample throughput of the FI-ESI-MS method is much higher than the FTIR method due to simpler sample preparation, autosampling capabilities, and short analysis times. Finally, the new MS can be used to qualitatively analyze the alkaloids in larkspur samples and obtain possible identities of individual alkaloids in the sample, providing additional information useful for determining the toxicity of the plants and the risk to grazing livestock.

Technical Abstract: A rapid flow injection - electrospray ionization – mass spectrometry (FI-ESI-MS) method for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of norditerpenoid alkaloids in larkspur plants was developed. The FI-ESI-MS method was calibrated for alkaloid concentrations with larkspur plant samples against an existing Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy FTIR method. There was a strong correlation (r = 0.9908, r = 0.9671) between the FTIR and FI-ESI-MS methods. The relative standard deviation (RSD) for all measurements were = 4.5 % except for the sample with the lowest concentration which was 9%. The sample throughput of the FI-ESI-MS method is much higher than the FTIR method due to simpler sample preparation, autosampling capabilities, and short analysis times. Finally, the FIA-ESI-MS can be used to qualitatively analyze the alkaloids in larkspur samples since the data allows the observation of all ions that comprise the alkaloid signals.