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Identification of hydroxy-safflor yellow A, safflor yellow B, and precarthaminin safflower using LC/ESI–MSMS

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Abstract

This study is a report on the easy and fast extraction, separation, and identification of hydroxysafflor yellow A, safflor yellow B, and precarthamin. Safflower, Carthamus tinctorius L., was subjected to ultrasonic extraction and separation/identification by HPLC and LC–ESI/MSMS, respectively. The results indicated that extraction should be done as fast as possible at a low temperature (4 °C), and the most effective and efficient separation condition was obtained using 0.3 % v/v of acetic acid. In the identification process, the m/z of adduct ions and their fragmentation were used to interpret the chemical structures. From the MS analysis, various adduct ions and different fragmentations were monitored. In the case of hydroxysafflor yellow A, 613.100 Da belonging to [M + H]+ and 493.119, 451.108, 434.106, and 332.074 fragments were identified. Safflower extract mainly consist of the high concentrations of hydroxysafflor yellow A and precarthamin (~70 and ~25 % w/w) and lesser amounts of safflor yellow B (~1.5 % w/w).

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Correspondence to Fateme Mirzajani or Françoise Bernard.

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Mirzajani, F., Bernard, F., Zeinali, S.M. et al. Identification of hydroxy-safflor yellow A, safflor yellow B, and precarthaminin safflower using LC/ESI–MSMS. Food Measure 9, 332–336 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-015-9240-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-015-9240-9

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