Strong electrostatic repulsive interaction used for fast and effective alkaloid enrichment from plants

Since the content of alkaloids is usually low in plants and they are easily co-eluted with other constituents, enrichment of alkaloids is essential in the discovery of bioactive lead compounds from natural products. In this paper, an easy SPE enrichment method was developed in a buffer-free solvent system based on electrostatic repulsion mechanism. The feasibility of the new method was verified by successful enrichment of alkaloids from Scopolia tangutica (S. tangutica) with an optimized eluting condition. Then this developed method was applied to other representative plants in different families, including Przewalskia tangutica and Peganum harmala L, Lycoris radiata and Menispermum dauricum DC, which enlarged the scope of applicability. Additionally, the new SPE procedure avoided possible structural change destruction caused by pH change. Simple solvent system, including formic acid (FA) and methanol, would benefit subsequent mass analysis, quantity determination and bioactivity screening, and so on.