Separation and identification of lipid classes by normal phase LC-ESI/MS/MS on a cyanopropyl column

In order to establish a versatile and convenient method for the analysis of lipids, electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS/MS) was applied to a HPLC separation on a cyanopropyl-bonded stationary phase. A binary gradient mobile phase system consisting of hexane, toluene, methanol and a stable electrospray yielding sodium adduct ions could be used to generate specific product ions in MS/MS mode. By applying the LC/ESI-MS/MS method on an egg yolk sample, 29 different molecular species of phosphatidylethanolamines, phosphatidylcholines, and lysophosphatidylcholines could be detected within 25min.