Development of CE-C(4)D Method for Determination Tropane Alkaloids

A fast method for the determination of tropane alkaloids, using a portable CE instrument with a capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detector (CE-C(4)D) was developed and validated for determination of atropine and scopolamine in seeds from Solanaceae family plants. Separation was obtained within 5 min, using an optimized background electrolyte consisting of 0.5 M acetic acid with 0.25% (w/v) β-CD. The limit of detection and quantification was 0.5 µg/mL and 1.5 µg/mL, respectively, for both atropine and scopolamine. The developed method was validated with the following parameters—precision (CV): 1.07–2.08%, accuracy of the assay (recovery, RE): 101.0–102.7% and matrix effect (ME): 92.99–94.23%. Moreover, the optimized CE-C(4)D method was applied to the analysis of plant extracts and pharmaceuticals, proving its applicability and accuracy.