Determination of artemisinin and its analogs in Artemisia annua extracts by capillary electrophoresis - Mass spectrometry.

The applicability of micellar electrokinetic capillary chromatography (MEKC) with mass spectrometric detection for the determination of artemisinin and its analogs (e.g. ascaridole, artemisia ketone, casticin, deoxyartemisinin, arteannuic acid, artemetin, dihydroartemisinic acid) was studied. 40 mM ammonium perfluorooctanoate (pH 9.5) with 2% isopropanol (IPA) was used as background electrolyte (BGE) and the sheath liquid was 50 % (v/v) IPA:water containing 0.1 % formic acid. Separation was performed in a bare fused silica capillary. Artemisinin was detected at 283.1545 m/z as [M+H]+ ion. For artemisinin the linear range was found to be 0.6 μg/mL - 60 μg/mL and the limit of detection was 0.18 μg/mL. The RSD% values were 2.6 % for migration times and 4.8 % for peak areas (N = 6). In the ethanolic extracts of Artemisia annua leaves, in addition to artemisinin, a large number of other organic components could be separated and determined. MEKC-MS revealed the existence of diastereomers of several compounds (artemisinin, deoxyartemisinin, dihydroartemisinic acid) in the plant extracts.