Mass Fragmentation Patterns as Fingerprints for Positive Identification of Polyphenolic Compounds in a Crude Extract

Sixteen compounds of Neobalanocarpus heimii were successfully identified directly from their plant extract using a triple quadrupole LC-MS/MS system. In order to fulfil the objectives of this work, a series of stilbene oligomers of various degrees of condensation were isolated and their structure are characterized. Out of these, four are resveratrol dimers, three trimers, and nine tetramers. The isolation process was done on a fully automated semi-preparative HPLC system. Their structures were elucidated on the basis of 1D- and 2D-NMR as well as MS data. The mass fragmentation patterns of the compounds were recorded and a retrievable in-house library was built to keep the data. In order to demonstrate the potential of this approach, the polyphenolic crude extract was analysed with the LC-MS/MS system and the MS/MS spectra extracted for each chromatographic peak of interest. The fragmentation patterns were compared with those of anticipated pure compounds that were previously recorded. All compounds were successfully identified. It is therefore believed that the LC-MS/MS potential for dereplication of structurally similar compounds in a crude mixture was thus firmly established.