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Updated: Feb 8, 2026

Chemical Analysis of Water-accommodated Fractions of Crude Oil Spills Using TIMS-FT-ICR MS
Published on: March 3, 2017
Structural elucidation and quantitative analysis of cinnamic acid derivatives using TIMS-MS, cyclodextrin adducts,
Xueqian Sun1, Ziyu Qu2, Di Zhang2
1Institute of Mass Spectrometry, School of Material Science and Chemical Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315211, China.
None:
This study developed a rapid TIMS-MS method combined with computational chemistry to differentiate and quantify three groups of cinnamic acid derivative (CAD) isomers: 2/4- hydroxycinnamic acid (2/4-HCA), α/β-methylcinnamic acid (α/β-MCA), and o/m/p- Methoxycinnamic acid (o/m/p-MCA). Separation leveraged distinct non-covalent complexes formed with α-/β-/γ-cyclodextrin (CDs) and metal ions. Optimal conditions achieved excellent resolution (Rp-p up to 1.05), particularly for [2/4-HCA + α-CD + Mg-H]+ and [o/m/p-MCA + α-CD + Mg-H]+ complexes. Computational analysis confirmed the conformational differences and non-covalent interaction sites enabling separation, aligning well with experiments (error ≤ 3.46%). The method showed high sensitivity of limit of detection (LOD) ≤3.27 ng·mL-1, linearity (R2 > 0.99), and successfully quantified CAD isomers in pineapple leaves and cinnamon powder with good recovery (≥80.60%) and precision of relative standard deviation (RSD ≤5.75%). By avoiding chemical derivatization and chromatographic separation, our method provides a rapid and simple platform for the direct analysis of bioactive food components, demonstrating great promise for food quality control.
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