Comparison of GC-MS and LC-MS methods for the analysis of antioxidant phenolic acids in herbs

Two methods were developed for the quantitative analysis of phenolic acids in herb extracts. The methods were based on liquid chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-TOFMS) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The methods were compared in terms of their linearity, repeatability, selectivity, sensitivity and the speed of the analysis. The sensitivity was good for both methods, with limits of detection of <80 ng/ml for most of the compounds. The relative standard deviations (RSD) of the peak areas were on average 7.2% for the LC-TOFMS method and 1.4% for the GC-MS method. Both methods were found to be suitable for the determination of the target analytes, although GC-MS was better suited to the quantitative determination of compounds present at low concentrations.