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Updated: Mar 21, 2026

Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Glycosphingolipid Antigens
Published on: April 16, 2013
Differentiation of Isomeric Ginsenosides by Using Electron-Induced Dissociation Mass Spectrometry
Y-L Elaine Wong1, Xiangfeng Chen1,2, Wan Li1
1Department of Chemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong SAR, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Current phytochemical research on ginsengs focuses on the structural characterization and isomer differentiation of ginsenosides. In this Letter, electron-induced dissociation (EID) was initially investigated by analyzing isomeric ginsenosides. EID provided more structural information on their differentiation than collision-induced dissociation (CID) did. Glycosyl group migration previously observed in the CID of oligosaccharide ions could also be found in the EID of protonated Rg1. This rearrangement reaction would show substantial ambiguities in differentiating Rg1 from Rf. Although other charge carriers could alleviate this problem, the use of EID in dissociating deprotonated ginsenoside ions was superior to other techniques in terms of eliminating glycosyl group migration and generating diagnostic fragment ions for the differentiation of structural isomers. This study demonstrates a potential method to analyze natural products and thus help discover and evaluate novel compounds.
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