Abstract
The priority ergot alkaloids ergometrine and ergometrinine are highly toxic mycotoxins naturally occurring in different types of grains (i.e. rye, wheat, rice), as well as grain-based foods and, therefore, have gained increasing importance for food safety over the last years. The application of HPLC-MS/MS for the analysis of ergot alkaloids in food presupposes the availability of isotopically labelled internal standards. Thus, a multistep synthesis was developed for ergometrine-(N-13CD3) and its epimer ergometrinine-(N-13CD3) with a mass shift of four units compared with the parent compounds. The synthesis is based on the preparation of stable isotope labelled lysergic acid that was coupled with (S)-alaninol. The chemical synthesis of both compounds has been achieved in six steps with an overall yield of 1 % (ergometrine-(N-13CD3)) and 0.6 % (ergometrinine-(N-13CD3)), respectively. Structural identification was performed by MS analysis as well as 1H and 13C NMR.