Mass Spectrometric Studies of Bioactive Constituents in Adhatoda Spp.

Adhatoda beddomei and Adhatoda vasica are popular Ayurvedic medicinal plants in India, belonging to the family Acanthaceae. Tricyclic quinazoline alkaloids, abundantly present in adhatoda, are found to be responsible for the broad-spectrum medicinal properties. The other major class of compounds found in adhatoda is the flavonoids. The project initiated by us aims to seek identification and characterization of the alkaloids and flavonoids based on their fragmentation patterns. Methods were also developed and validated to quantify the major alkaloid and flavonoid components simultaneously. The developed method was successfully applied to quantify the phytoconstituents in adhatoda herbal formulations available in the market. The ethanol extracts of the samples collected from Palode, Kerala, India were subjected to LC-MS/MS analyses after selective extraction of the alkaloid and flavonoid fractions under positive and negative ion conditions, respectively. Among the 23 alkaloids tentatively identified, 16 have been previously reported in Adhatoda species. 29 flavonoids were tentatively identified, including 17 C-, nine O-glycosides and three flavonoids from the LC-MS/MS spectra.