LCMS/MS AND GCMS IDENTIFACTION OF COMPOUNDS SUFFICENT ENOUGH

[seamoro]

Hey all,
Im doing my masters of research on a mushroom used by the indigenous tribes of north malaysia that has previously no work been done on it before. I have extracted 33 compounds and from it and identified them by comparision to NIST libary on GCMS and by comparison of previous work MS spectrums on the LCMS/MS. My question is......is this enough!! if i was to extract and purify all 33 compounds and compare them to standards i would be here for 10 years!!...so to just compare mass spectrums is enough for ISI scientifc publication? Thanks in advance

[Peter Apps]

The journals have different policies - check out the instructions to authors for your target journal. For known compounds (which yours must be if they are in the NIST libraries) the mimimum requirement is usually an MS library match plus co-elution with no change in spectrum when an authentic standard is spiked into the sample. Similar conditions would apply to the LC-MS; does it co-elute with the authentic material and does it behave in the MS the same as the authentic material ? Accurate masses if you have them would be strong additional evidence. The strictness of the criteria depend to an extent on what you are claiming - if you have an ordinary list of known mushroom components that do not lead to any exciting new findings the identifications can rest on less evidence. If you have a completely new structure with all sorts of implications for fungal metabolism and the origin of life as we know it you had better have a specific synthesis, NMR and accurate mass MS lined up behind it.

Peter