C18-COOH Silica: Preparation, Characterisation and Its Application in Purification of Quaternary Ammonium Alkaloids from Coptis chinensis.

Introduction Traditional methods for isolating and purifying quaternary ammonium alkaloids from Coptis chinensis do not discriminate the target alkaloids from co-extractives. Mixed-mode analytical chromatography has the potential to improve the separation of analytes in more complex extracts and, when used in a solid-phase extraction mode, improve the purity of isolated compounds. Objective To examine the high-performance liquid chromatographic separation capabilities of a mixed-mode, silica-based adsorbent and its application to the purification of quaternary ammonium alkaloids from Coptis chinensis based on solid-phase extraction. Methodology The C18-COOH silica was prepared via “thiol-ene” click chemistry. Its chromatographic performance was firstly investigated. It was employed as the solid-phase extraction sorbent to purify quaternary ammonium alkaloids. Results Hydrophobic, attractive/repulsive electrostatic and ion-exchange interactions were demonstrated to be the possible retention mechanisms of a C18-COOH silica stationary phase, which could separate analytes of various properties. In addition, to purify quaternary ammonium alkaloids from Coptis chinensis, the solid-phase extraction approach based on the C18-COOH silica provided a slightly higher purification efficiency (6.7%) than an alkaloid-salt precipitation protocol (5.3%). The method had satisfactory reproducibility, re-using the same solid-phase extraction column three times, with relative standard deviations ranging from 1.99% to 8.02% for the six target alkaloids. Conclusion A multi-functionalised silica was synthesised via “click chemistry”. As the high-performance liquid chromatographic stationary phase, the C18-COOH silica could be operated in trimodal reversed-phase/weak cation exchange/hydrophilic interaction mode. The C18-COOH silica also exhibited potential as solid-phase extraction sorbent in the purification of quaternary ammonium alkaloids from complex matrices. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.