The role of mass spectrometry in medicinal plant research.

In phytochemical and chemotaxonomic research work mass spectrometry plays an outstandingly important role. Using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) we established the chemotaxa of Tanacetum vulgare L. Chemotypes with essential oils containing 60-90% of artemisia ketone, carveol, dihydrocarvone, myrtenol, umbellulone, terpinen-4-ol, davanone, and Tagetes species containing various essential oils can be clearly distinguished by their spectra; we examined many variations of Tagetes erecta, T. lucida, T. minuta, T. patula and T. tenuifolia. We have identified alpha-beta-pinene-, 1,8-cineol-, linalool-, camphor-, nerol-, geraniol- and gamma-gurjonene as components of Achillea distans L. Injecting the essential oil direct from the oil-secreting organs of T. minuta plants we identified using GC/MS 6-10 and 16% eugenol from the involucral bract and hypsophyll, respectively, as well as beta-ocimene, dihydrotagetone, tagetone, Z- and E-ocimenones. In the course of studies on essential fatty acids Borago officinalis and Lappula squarrosa were selected from 70 species of the family Boraginaceae to obtain seed oil as a source of gamma-linolenic acid, and for the PG synthesis we isolated several grams of gamma-linolenic acid, as well as C18:4, i.e. octadecatetraenic acid, from L. squarrosa on the basis of the mass spectra. From the seed oil of Aquilegia vulgaris C18:3 (5) from the oil of Limnanthes dougloasii C20:1 (5) and from the seed oils of Delphinium consolida and of Tropaeolum species (T. majus, T. minus, T. peregrinum) C20:1 (11) fatty acids were identified on the basis of spectra.