PRiME pass-through purification of lignans in Silybum marianum and UPLC-MS/MS analysis

Seed Germination of Three Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn.) Populations of Greek Origin: Temperature, Duration, and Storage Conditions Effects

Milk thistle besides being a highly competitive weed is cultivated as a medicinal plant, and the seeds of which have been clinically utilized in several disorders caused in liver. The present study aims to evaluate the effect of duration and storage conditions, population, and temperature on seed germination. The experiment was conducted in Petri dishes with three replications and three factors: (a) wild populations of milk thistle (Palaionterveno, Mesopotamia, and Spata) originating from Greece, (b) duration and storage conditions (5 months at room temperature, 17 months at room temperature, and 29 months in the freezer at -18 °C), and (c) temperature (5 °C, 10 °C, 15 °C, 20 °C, 25 °C, and 30 °C). All three factors significantly affected germination percentage (GP), mean germination time (MGT), germination index (GI), radicle length (RL), and hypocotyl length (HL) and significant interactions among the treatments were noted. In specific, no seed germination was recorded at 5 °C, while the populations showed higher GP and GI at 20 °C and 25 °C after 5 months of storage. Prolonged storage negatively affected seed germination although, cold storage mitigated this effect. Moreover, higher temperatures reduced MGT and increased RL and HL with the populations reacting differently in storage and temperature regimes. The results of this study should be taken into consideration when proposing the appropriate sowing date and storage conditions of the seeds used as propagation material for crop establishment. Moreover, the effects of low temperatures such as 5 °C or 10 °C on seed germination as well as the high decline rate in germination percentage over time could be utilized in the design of integrated weed management systems thereby indicating the importance of the sowing time and the suitable crop rotation system to weed control.

Rapid quantification of bioactive compounds in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge derived decoction pieces, dripping pill, injection, and tablets by polarity-switching UPLC-MS/MS

Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge (SMB) has unambiguous biological functions in cardiovascular diseases, thus has been processed into different medicine forms. However, universal analytical method for fast quantification of bioactive compounds in SMB and SMB derived products is still missing. In this study, a polarity switching strategy was developed and optimized, which enabled the detection of the target compound in both positive and negative ion modes in a single run. The MS2 features of each compound were characterized to select the most prominent transitions for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Afterwards, the performance of this method was validated in terms of linearity (≥0.9916), limit of detection (LOD, 0.003–0.135 ngml−1), limit of quantification (LOQ, 0.010–0.450 ngml−1), precision (48.23 ± 2.58 ngml−1 to 53.72 ± 3.11 ngml−1), recovery (RSD 2.04%–5.79%), and stability (RSD ≤7.52%). Finally, the bioactive compounds in SMB and SMB derived products were determined, among which salvianate A, salvianolic acid A, and rosmarinic acid were the main components in all samples. In conclusion, the polarity switching UPLC-MS/MS method is efficient in accurate determining the bioactive compounds, which greatly shorten the time for analysis when compared with conventional methods. It has great potential quality control of SMB and SMB derived products.

Simultaneous determination of ten aminoglycoside antibiotics in aquatic feeds by high-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometry with pass-through cleanup

A simple and sensitive method has been established based on pass-through cleanup and high-performance liquid chromatography quadrupole-orbitrap mass spectrometry (HPLC-Q/Orbitrap MS) for the simultaneous determination of ten aminoglycosides (AGs) in aquatic feeds. The extraction solution and cleanup procedure had been optimized, and good sensitivity, accuracy, and precision were obtained. The calibration curves of AGs were linearity (R² > 0.99) in the range of 2.0 to 200 μg/L (or 5.0 to 500 μg/L). The limits of detection of AGs were between 10 and 25 μg/kg. The recoveries of AGs ranged from 74.9% to 94.3%, and the intraday and interday relative standard deviations were less than 15%. Finally, this method was successfully applied to determine ten AGs in 30 aquatic feed samples. It might be the first time to use pass-through cleanup approach combined with HPLC-Q/Orbitrap MS method for AGs determination in aquatic feed samples.