Technical advances in mass spectrometry constantly raise the bar for analyzing trace amounts of plant hormones in only very small amounts of tissue. Here, a highly sensitive and accurate method is described for the quantitative analysis of the plant hormone salicylic acid not only in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana but also in other plant species. The presented method is optimized for the working up of as little as 20 to 50 mg of plant tissue. The discussed protocol and the utilized laboratory equipment facilitate the implementation of the method into other laboratories that possess access to adequate state-of-the-art gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) equipment.
Keywords: Derivatization; Electron-impact tandem mass spectrometry (EI-GC-MS/MS); Plant hormone analysis; Salicylic acid; Solid-phase extraction; Stable isotopes.