Plant-derived liquid chromatography

Milbemectin consists of two active ingredients, M.A3 and M.A4. Milbemectin is extracted from plant materials and soils with methanol-water (7 3, v/v). After centrifugation, the extracts obtained are diluted to volume with the extraction solvent in a volumetric flask. Aliquots of the extracts are transferred on to a previously conditioned Cl8 solid-phase extraction (SPE) column. Milbemectin is eluted with methanol after washing the column with aqueous methanol. The eluate is evaporated to dryness and the residual milbemectin is converted to fluorescent anhydride derivatives after treatment with trifluoroacetic anhydride in 0.5 M triethylamine in benzene solution. The anhydride derivatives of M.A3 and M.A4 possess fluorescent sensitivity. The derivatized samples are dissolved in methanol and injected into a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system equipped with a fluorescence detector for quantitative determination. 

Uronic acids have been studied similarly in connection with pectins384,523 and oligogalacturonic acids,170 fruits,319 and plants.66"524 Neukom and coworkers have studied the behavior of uronic acid and also aldaric acid derivatives.525 Ascorbic acid and its analogs526 have been separated by gas-liquid chromatography and determined291 in plant extracts. 

Ohlenbusch, G., C. Zwiener, R.U. Meckenstock, et al. 2002. Identification and quantification of polar naphthalene derivatives in contaminated groundwater of a former gas plant site by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. J. Chromatogr. A 967 201-207. 

The major application described in the James-Martin landmark paper on gas-liquid chromatography is the separation and quantitation of fatty acids (FA). Indeed, it has remained as one of the major applications to this date. It has been estimated [350] that some 25% of all papers published in the field of GC involve, in one way or another, FA or their derivatives. A vast range of samples have been analyzed for FA animal and plant oils, foodstuffs, bacterial products, glandular secretions of animals, and various physiological fluids and tissues, just to mention a few. As more and more information is being sought concerning the composition of various lipids, the applications are expected to increase even further in the future. 

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