Direct analysis of plant tissues by probe electrospray ionization mass spectrometry,

ZHAN YU; LEE CHUIN CHEN; , HIROAKI SUZUKI,; OSAMU ARIYADA; , ROSA ERRA-BALSELLS; HIROSHI NONAMI; KENZO HIRAOKA

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MASS SPECTROMETRY

Elsevier

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2009 vol. 20 p. 2304 - 2311

1044-0305

Probe electrospray ionization (PESI) is a recently developed ESI-based ionization technique which generates electrospray from the tip of a fine solid needle. Previous works have demonstrated that PESI can be suitable for direct analysis without or with minimal sample preparation. In this study, we applied PESI interfaced with a time of flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) for direct analysis of tulip bulbs and changes of carbohydrate content of living tulip bulbs during the first week of initial growth. Mass spectrometric data have shown that along with initial growth of tulip bulbs, carbohydrate content of each bulb decreased. Besides carbohydrates, other chemicals have also been detected in different parts of tulip bulbs. This study has indicated that PESI can be used for rapid and direct analysis of chemical constituents in living biological systems with advantages of low sample-consumption and short flushing time. Therefore, PESI can be a new choice for direct analysis/profiling of bioactive compounds or monitoring metabolic changes in living biological systems.