• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.470-475
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• 2013

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a major environmental factor that leads to acute and chronic reactions in the human skin. UV exposure induces wrinkle formation, DNA damage, and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Most mechanistic studies of skin physiology and pharmacology related with UV-irradiated skin have focused on proteins and their related gene expression or single-targeted small molecules. The present study identified and analyzed the alteration of skin metabolites following UVB irradiation and topical retinyl palmitate (RP, 5%) treatment in hairless mice using direct analysis in real time (DART) time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) with multivariate analysis. Under the negative ion mode, the DART ion source successfully ionized various fatty acids including palmitoleic and linolenic acid. From DART-TOF-MS fingerprints measured in positive mode, the prominent dehydrated ion peak (m/z: 369, M+H-$H_2O$) of cholesterol was characterized in all three groups. In positive mode, the discrimination among three groups was much clearer than that in negative mode by using multivariate analysis of orthogonal partial-least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). DART-TOF-MS can ionize various small organic molecules in living tissues and is an efficient alternative analytical tool for acquiring full chemical fingerprints from living tissues without requiring sample preparation. DART-MS measurement of skin tissue with multivariate analysis proved to be a powerful method to discriminate between experimental groups and to find biomarkers for various experiment models in skin dermatological research.

• Natural Product Sciences
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.202-205
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• 2011

The Angelica root has been used as a medicinal herb in many Asian countries including Korea, China, and Japan. Angelica gigas, A. sinensis, and A. acutiloba have been considered as Angelicae radix in Korean, Chinese, and Japanese Pharmacopoeia, respectively. Since the origins of Angelicae radix differ from country to country, there is a need to develop an efficient analytical method to identify the origin of the Angelica root. In order to obtain chemical fingerprints, three different Angelicae Radices were analyzed by direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS). Significantly different DART-MS spectra were observed from three different species of Angelicae Radix. Strong peaks of decursin or decusinol angelate, and its dimer were exclusively found from A. gigas. Ligustilide and linoleic acid were detected as the major component from A. acutiloba. The strongest ligustilide peak was observed from A. sinensis. DART-MS fingerprinting is a promising method for the rapid identification and/or quality control of Angelicae Radix.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.30-33
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• 2013

Chalcones are naturally occurring, biologically active molecules generating interest from a wide range of research applications including synthetic methodology development, biological activity investigation and studying fragmentation patterns. In this article, a series of chalcones has been synthesized and their fragmentation behavior was studied using modern ambient ionization technique Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART). DART ion source connected with an ion trap mass spectrometer was used for the fragmentation of various substituted chalcones. The chalcones were introduced to the DART source using a glass capillary without sample preparation step. All the chalcones showed prominent molecular ion peaks $[M]^{{\cdot}+}$ corresponding to the structures. Multistage mass spectral data $MS^n$ ($MS^2$ and $MS^3$) were collected for all the chalcones studied. The chalcones with substitutions at 3, 4 or 5 positions gave product ion peaks with the loss of a phenyl radical ($Ph^{\cdot}$) by radical initiated ${\alpha}$-cleavage, while substitution at 2 position of chalcone in the A-ring gave a product ion peak with the loss of substituted styryl radical (PhCH = $CH^{\cdot}$). In case of the chalcones with the substituent at 4 positions in A and B rings gave both types of fragmentation patterns. In conclusion, chalcones can be easily characterized using modern DART interface in very short time and efficiently without any cumbersome sample pretreatment.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2015

Direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) is one of the variants of ambient mass spectrometry. The ionization process of DART-MS is in open environment and only takes few seconds, so it is suitable for fast analysis. Actually, since its introduction in 2005, more and more attentions have been drawn to its various applications due to its excellent properties, e.g., fast analysis, and no or less sample preparation, high salt tolerance and so on. This review summarized the promising features of DART-MS, including its ionization mechanism, equipment modification, wide applications, coupling techniques and extraction strategies before analysis.

• Korean Journal of Pharmacognosy
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.161-165
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• 2010

A study was performed to assess the quality equivalence of commercially available Hwang-Ryun-Hae-Dok-Tang granules from various vendors in terms of the contents of characterizing compounds. 'Hwang-Ryun-Hae-Dok-Tang'(or 'Huanglian Jiedu Tang') is the complex medicinal herbal product which is composed of four different herbal drugs; Scutellariae Radix, Coptidis Rhizoma, Phellodendri Cortex and Gardeniae Fructus. Using a high performance liquid chromatography and direct analysis in real time mass spectrometer (DART-MS), five characterizing compounds such as baicalin, baicalein, berberine, palmatine, and geniposide were analyzed to compare the variance of the contents between the products from four different vendors. Although five characterizing compounds were all successfully detected from all the products, the contents of each compound were shown to have significant difference among vendors. For real time monitoring of characterizing compounds in medicinal herbal products, DART-MS can be successfully adopted as a powerful analytical tool.

• Advances in Traditional Medicine
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.319-321
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• 2010

Plant saponins are widely distributed amongst plants and have a wide range of biological properties. Icosahydropicenic acid, $C_{51}H_{80}O_{19}$ ((4S,6bS)-8a-((4,5-dihydroxy-6-methyl-3-((3R)-3,4,5-trihydroxy-6-methyl-tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yloxy)-tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yloxy)carbonyl)-2-hydroxy-4, 6a, 6b, 11, 14b-pentamethyl-11-(2-methylprop-1-enyl)-3-(3,4,5-trihydroxy-6-(hydroxymethyl) - tetrahydro-2Hpyran-2-yloxy)-1, 2, 3, 4, 4a, 5, 6, 6a, 6b, 7, 8, 8a, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12a, 14, 14a, 14b-icosahydropicene-4-carboxylic acid), a new saponin was first time isolated from the roots of Clerodendrum Serratum (L) Moon (Verbenaceae). The structure elucidation of the compound was carried out by $^1H$ NMR and DART-MS studies.