Collision-induced dissociation of a series of coumarins studied by positive- and negative-ion electrospray triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry

New Metabolites of Coumarin Detected in Human Urine Using Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography/Quadrupole-Time-of-Flight Tandem Mass Spectrometry

Coumarin (1,2-benzopyrone) is a natural compound whose metabolism in humans was established in the 1970s. However, a new metabolite was recently identified in human plasma, indicating that the metabolism of coumarin has not been completely elucidated. To complement the knowledge of its metabolism, a rapid and sensitive method using UPLC-QTOF-MS was developed. A total of 12 metabolites was identified using MetaboLynxTM software, including eight metabolites not previously reported in human urine. The identified biotransformation included hydroxylation, glucuronidation, sulfation, methylation, and conjugation with N-acetylcysteine. The present work demonstrates that the metabolism study of coumarin was incomplete, possibly due to limitations of old techniques. The identification of eight inedited metabolites of such a simple molecule suggests that the information regarding the metabolism of other drugs may also be incomplete, and therefore, new investigations are necessary.

Negative ion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and computational studies on substituted 7-hydroxycoumarins

Twenty-two substituted 7-hydroxycoumarins were studied by negative ion electrospray ionization collision- induced dissociation (CID) mass spectrometry. Fragmentation pathways were also investigated by computation method using the B3LYP density functional theory. In general, the most important fragmentations of the 7- hydroxycoumarin [M - H](-) ions were the elimination of CO(2) and CO which agreed with the calculated energies of the proposed fragmentation reactions. In most cases, methyl group elimination was also favorable. Methyl group elimination occurred in three different ways, the most interesting being hydrogen rearrangement from a neighboring alkyl group to a ring carbon, which led to a benzyl radical formation. In some cases, CH(2)CO elimination was observed as well. Isomeric compounds gave rise to different CID spectra.