Centrifugal partition chromatography is a liquid-liquid separation method well adapted for the fractionation or purification of natural compounds from plant extracts. However, following the preparative isolation, the fractions collected must be analysed by high-performance thin-layer chromatography or high-performance liquid chromatography to evaluate their composition and/or their purity. These additional steps are time-consuming and increase the risk of compound degradation. In order to get an instantaneous analysis of fraction content with structural information on the phytochemicals eluted, it is possible to hyphenate on-line centrifugal partition chromatography with mass spectrometry. Depending on the complexity of the extract, two different kinds of centrifugal partition chromatography-mass spectrometry coupling can be performed: centrifugal partition chromatography-mass spectrometry or centrifugal partition chromatography-high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry coupling. In the first case, one part of the centrifugal partition chromatography effluent is directly introduced in the mass spectrometry ionisation source to identify the eluted compounds, while in the second case, it is directed to a high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry system where compounds are first separated thanks to high-performance liquid chromatography and then identified using mass spectrometry.
Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.