Thermal behavior and thermal decarboxylation of 10-hydroxycamptothecin in the solid state.

In order to investigate the thermal-related properties and thermal stability of 10-hydroxycamptothecin (10-HCPT) in the solid state, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) microspectroscopy were used. A novel combination of FT-IR microspectroscopy with thermal analyzer was applied simultaneously to monitor the dehydration and rehydration processes of the 10-HCPT sample. The thermal-induced decomposition of the 10-HCPT sample was also determined by using electrospray-ion trap mass spectrometry (ES-ITMS). The results indicated that the 10-HCPT sample used in this study was a monohydrate in structure, this form that can dehydrate to an anhydrate form if the temperature goes beyond 90 degrees C. The 10-HCPT anhydrate was first suggested to have two polymorphs, in which the form I might transform to form II when the 110 degrees C-preheated sample was cooled to 30 degrees C. The polymorphic transformation temperature was shown within 90-120 degrees C with 10.46 kcal/mol of enthalpy. The peak at 1723 cm(-1) found in the IR spectrum of 10-HCPT monohydrate might correspond to the hydrogen-bonded CO stretching vibration of lactone, which shifted to 1750 cm(-1) assigned to a free CO group of lactone after the destruction of hydrogen bonding via dehydration. This suggests that monohydrate seems to interact intramolecularly with 10-HCPT by hydrogen bonding. However, the rehydration process of the 10-HCPT anhydrate might cause it to return to being a monohydrate, depending on the storage condition. In addition, the thermal-induced decarboxylation of the solid-state 10-HCPT when the temperature is beyond 226 degrees C was proven by the appearance of a new IR peak at 1701 cm(-1) and one major mass spectral peak at m/z 321. This unique IR spectral peak at 1701 cm(-1) was due to the conjugated carbonyl group in the degraded product of 10-HCPT. The m/z 321 assigned to the decarboxylation of 10-HCPT was equal to the molecular weight loss of 44 from mass spectra; which was consistent with the weight loss of 11.9% (molecular weight of 43.3) from TGA curve of 10-HCPT anhydrate.

Determination of aristolochic acids in medicinal plant and herbal product by liquid chromatography-electrospray-ion trap mass spectrometry.

This paper describes a liquid chromatography-electrospray-ion trap mass spectrometry (LC-ES-ITMS) method for the determination of aristolochic acid I and II (AA-I and AA-II) in medicinal plants and Chinese herbal remedies. A reversed phase C(18) column with gradient elution was utilized. The effects of mobile phase additives, acetic acid and ammonium acetate, on LC separation and ES ionization were investigated. For both AA-I and AA-II, the [M+NH(4)](+) ion was found to be the precursor ion for target MS/MS analysis. The MS/MS product ion, [M+H-44](+), was used for the quantitative measurement of AA-I and AA-II. The linearity was good from 0.03 to 5 mug ml(-1) and good correlation (r(2)=0.999) over the range examined was determined for both AA. The detection limit based on a signal-to-noise ratio of three was 0.012 and 0.015 mug ml(-1) for AA-I and AA-II, respectively. Various Chinese herbal remedies obtained from renal failure patients and medicinal plants were examined by this newly developed method.