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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

High-resolution Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Studying Chemical Constituents of Gynura bicolor DC
Published on: February 2, 2024
Determination of carbohydrates in medicinal plants--comparison between TLC, mf-MELDI-MS and GC-MS
Muhammad Nasimullah Qureshi1, Guenther Stecher, Tahira Sultana
1Institute of Analytical Chemistry and Radiochemistry, Leopold-Franzens-University Innsbruck, Innrain 52 a, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Introduction:
Quality control in the pharmaceutical and phytopharmaceutical industries requires fast and reliable methods for the analysis of raw materials and final products.
Objective:
This study evaluates different analytical approaches in order to recognise the most suitable technique for the analysis of carbohydrates in herbal drug preparations.
Methodology:
The specific focus of the study is on thin-layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography (GC), and a newly developed mass spectrometric method, i.e. matrix free material enhanced laser desorption/ionisation time of flight mass spectrometry (mf-MELDI-MS). Samples employed in the study were standards and microwave-assisted water extracts from Quercus.
Results:
TLC analysis proved the presence of mono-, di- and trisaccharides within the biological sample and hinted at the existence of an unknown carbohydrate of higher oligomerisation degree. After evaluation of different derivatisation techniques, GC-MS confirmed data obtained via TLC for mono- to trisaccharides, delivering additionally quantified values under a considerable amount of time. A carbohydrate of higher oligomerisation degree could not be found. The application of mf-MELDI-MS further confirmed the presence of carbohydrates up to trisaccharides, also hinting at the presence of a form of tetrasaccharide. Besides this information, mf-MELDI-MS delivered further data about other substances present in the extract. Quantitative determination resulted in 1.750, 1.736 and 0.336 mg/mL for glucose, sucrose and raffinose respectively.
Conclusion:
Evaluation of all three techniques employed, clearly proved the heightened performance of mf-MELDI-MS for the qualitative analysis of complex mixtures, as targets do not need modification and analysis requires only a few minutes. In addition, GC-MS is suitable for quantitative analysis.
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