Simultaneous determination of lipo-alkaloids extracted from Aconitum carmiechaeli using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and multiple tandem mass spectrometry

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) combined with multiple tandem mass spectrometry (MS (n)) has been applied for simultaneously determining lipo-alkaloids from the aconite tubers. ESI-MS can give a very good mass separation for lipo-alkaloid mixture and MS (n) can provide structural information. Accordingly, structures were assigned to 12 known lipo-alkaloids including lipoaconitines, lipomesaconitines, lipodeoxyaconitines, and lipohypaconitines on the base of the information obtained using MS ( n). Also, four new lipo-alkaloids were found and their structures were interpreted using the MS (n) data.