Analysis of medicinal properties in a combination cold remedy by using JMS-S3000 "SpiralTOF™"
MSTips No. 241
Matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) is a soft ionization method that uses laser energy absorbing "matrix" compounds to assist with the ionization process. Typically, the molecular weight for these matrice ions are in the low m/z range (typically 100-300Da range). The MALDI ion source is typically combined with reflectron type time-of-flight mass spectrometers (TOFMS), which offer insufficient mass resolving power for separating matrix and contamination peaks from analyte peaks of interest with low molecular weights. The JMS-S3000 "SpiralTOF™" (Figure 1) is a MALDI-TOFMS that has a spiral ion trajectory that folds a 17m flight path into a one meter box by using four electrostatic sectors. As a result, the SpiralTOF™ has a five times longer flight path than conventional reflectron TOFMS systems thus allowing it to achieve the highest mass resolution commercially available for a MALDI-TOFMS system. Additionally, interference from chemical background are reduced by eliminating post source decay ions in the electrostatic sectors. These features allow the SpiralTOF™ to easily detect low molecular weight ions. In this report, we will discuss the analysis of medicinal components in a combination cold remedy.