Belladonna, Extract Leaves

The on-line coupling of CE with electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (CE-ESI-MS) allows high separation efficiency together with high sensitivity and selectivity as well as molecular structural information. A CE-UV-ESI-MS method was developed for the analysis of hoscyamine, scopolamine, and other tropane derivatives [131]. The differentiation of hyoscyamine from littorine, commonly encountered in plant material, was demonstrated using in-source collision-induced dissociation. The developed method was applied to the analysis of these alkaloids in Belladonna leaf extract and in Datura Candida x D. awreahairy root extract. Recently, CE coupled with electrochemiluminescence detection has been used for the determination of atropine and scopolamine in Flos daturae [132]. 

Standardized extracts contain constituents (single or groups) that are solely responsible for the acknowledged and documented therapeutic activity and the adjustment to a defined content is acceptable (e.g., standardized Senna leaf dry extract, Aloe dry extract. Belladonna leaf dry extract. Liquorice... 

CE-ESTTOE-MS was successfully applied to analyze mixtures of unknown tropane alkaloids. Seven alkaloids (tropine, belladonnine, norhyoscyamine, apoatropine, hyoscyamine, 6(3-hydroxyhyoscyamine, and scopolamine) were simultaneously identified in a pharmaceutical preparation of Atropa belladonna leaf extract by TOE-MS by matching their mass accuracy and true isotopic pattern. CE-ESTIT-MS was used to discriminate the putative presence of littorine. Optimal separation conditions were achieved with 60 mM ammonium acetate buffer at pH 8.5 containing 5 % isopropanol [116]. 

A considerable amount of literature is available on the determination of the alkaloidal content of belladonna, most of the methods suggested being variations of the general process of extraction from the leaf by a solvent in the presence of alkali, followed by acid extraction and finally solvent extraction from alkaline solution. The variations usually differ from the general method in the first part of the process i.e. extraction of the alkaloids from the plant) which is the most difficult operation. 

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