Rapid analyses of chromenes (benzopyrans) by gas chromatography—mass spectrometry

✍ Scribed by Olusegun Ekundayo; Into Laakso; Raimo Hiltunen; Tuulikki Seppänen

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1987
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 301 KB
• Volume: 403
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1873-3778
• DOI: 10.1016/s0021-9673(00)96377-5

✦ Synopsis

In the course of our study of the essential oil of Ageratum conyzoides L. (Compositae), it was necessary to devise a simple and rapid analytical procedure for investigating chromenes (benzopyrans) using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS). Chromenes are well known insect anti-juvenile hormones' which also induce sterility2. These naturally occurring compounds possess phototoxic activities against micro-organisms and have other important biological activities3. Previously, chromenes have commonly been assayed in plant extracts by column and thin-layer chromatography.

Recently, high-performance liquid chromatographic procedures were developed to detect and quantitate chromenes and benzofurans in Encelia crude plant extracts4. However, we are not aware of any previous procedures involving combined GC-MS. As chromenes normally co-occur in plants as complex mixtures, the method of choice for their analysis is CC-MS. This paper reports a rapid GC-MS procedure for the identification of chromenes in steam-volatile plant extracts. EXPERIMENTAL Essential oil was obtained from the leaves of Ageratum conyzoides by hydrodistillation using the British Pharmacopoeia methods. Leaves were collected from mature plants growing on the campus of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The oil was separated into non-polar and polar fractions on a Sep-Pak Silica Cartridge (Waters Assoc.) by elution with n-pentane and ethyl acetate, respectively.