Chromatography Forum

Hi all,
I am doing environmental analysis and I am using HPLC-MS/MS but I am new.
Somebody told me that to identify a compound you need the retention time and two transitions. Is that true? Which body decide that? Where can I get more information about this type of subject?

Thank in advance,

Apparently I didn't get that memo either.

You will find many bioanalytical methods in the literature, both pharmaceutical and environmental, that use only one transition per analyte (plus retention time). I have also seen methods that use two or three transitions for confirmation. The last time I read the FDA draft guidance for bioanalytical methods, the number of MS/MS transitions was not specified. I think there is not yet a consensus on this issue. I'm not sure if there is any one body that decides it; someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Here's the link to the FDA guidance document I mentioned.

http://www.fda.gov/cder/guidance/4252fnl.pdf

Thanks!

Dear Carol,

there is also an european guideline for monitoring certain drugs in edible tissues. It will give you some information on identification. Try this link:

http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/ ... 080036.pdf

Hope this will also help.

Bert