Analytical Sciences

Structural Determination of Saponins Extracted from Starfish by Fast Atom Bombardment Collision-Induced Dissociation Mass Spectrometry

Ji Hye GIL,*¹ Jee H. JUNG,*² Kang-Jin KIM,*³ Min-Sun KIM,*⁴ and Jongki HONG*⁴

*1 Hazardous Substance Research Team, Korea Basic Science Institute, Seoul 136-701, Korea
*2 College of Pharmacy, Pusan National University, Pusan 609-735, Korea
*3 Department of Chemistry, University of Korea, Seoul 136-701, Korea
*4 College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University, Hoegi-Dong, Dongdaemoon-Ku, Seoul 130-701, Korea

Three saponins were extracted and isolated from starfish by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and analyzed by fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FAB-MS). Their molecular weight information could be obtained by the presence of abundant [M+Na]⁺ ions and weak [M+H]⁺ ions in FAB-MS spectra. Moreover, high resolution mass measurements of their [M+Na]⁺ ions were performed at the resolution of 10000 to elucidate the element composition of extracted saponins. The collision-induced dissociation (CID) of sodium-adducted molecules [M+Na]⁺ yielded diverse product ions via dissociated processes. In the collision-induced dissociation (CID)-MS/MS analysis of [M+Na]⁺ ion, the sulfate-containing saponins produced characteristic ions such as SO₄Na⁺, [NaHSO₄+Na]⁺, [M+Na—sugar]⁺ and [M+Na—2sugar]⁺ ions, whereas the sulfate-free compound showed characteristic ions produced by cleavage of sugar moiety and side chain of aglycone. The fragmentation patterns could provide information on the linkage position of sugar groups in aglycone and sulfate groups.

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