Ginkgo Biloba Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Ginkgo Biloba, including details on ginkgo biloba, herbal remedies, side effects, benefits.

Fingerprint profile of Ginkgo biloba nutritional supplements by LC/ESI-MS/MS.

Ding S, Dudley E, Plummer S, Tang J, Newton RP, Brenton AG

Biomolecular Analysis Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of Wales Swansea, Singleton Park, Swansea SA28PP, UK; School of Chemical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou 310014, China.

Ginkgo biloba is one of the most popular herb nutrition supplements, with terpene lactones and flavonoids being the two major active components. A fingerprint profile method was developed using a capillary HPLC/MS method which can identify more than 70 components from the G. biloba product. The method allows the flavonoids and terpene lactones to be detected simultaneously and information of both the parent ion and its fragmentation can be obtained in just one HPLC/MS run. Targeted post-acquisition analysis allows mass spectrometric information regarding the identification of flavonoid components to be easily distinguished from other data, however the same approach for terpene lactones was less successful due to dimer formation and requires further development. The fingerprint profiles of five commercial G. biloba nutritional supplements were obtained and compared; variation of some components among the samples was observed and fortification could be detected. In the quality control analysis of the G. biloba product this method could be viewed as complementary to specific quantitative analysis of some bioactive components of the herb.

Published 21 April 2008 in Phytochemistry, 69(7): 1555-64.
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