ABSTRACT
A method for determination of 6 plant growth regulators by high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry ( HPLC-MS/MS ) coupled with isotope-coded derivatization was developed. d0-10-Methyl-acridone-2-sulfonyl piperazine ( d0-MASPz, light form) and d3-10-methyl-acridone-2-sulfonyl piperazine ( d3-MASPz, heavy form ) were prepared as isotope-coded derivatization reagents for carboxyl compound. The carboxyl plant growth regulator standards and real samples were derivatized by d0-MASPz and d3-MASPz, respectively. The obtained solutions were mixed at a certain ratio, and then injected for HPLC-MS/MS analysis. The light and heavy derivatives were monitored with transitions of [M+H]+m/z 208. 2 and [M+H]+ m/z 211. 2,respectively. With heavy derivative as internal standard for corresponding light derivative, the global isotope internal standard quantification for 6 plant growth regulators was achieved. The results indicated that the proposed isotope-coded derivatization method could provide relative quantitative data with adequate linearity in a 10-fold dynamic range ( R=0 . 9991 ) . The detection and quantitation limits were 0. 19-0. 34 μmol/L and 0. 53-0. 96 μmol/L, respectively. The relative standard deviations were ≤3 . 8%, and the accuracies ranged from 97 . 5% to 103 . 8%.