Development of an accurate and high-throughput methodology for structural comprehension of chlorophylls derivatives. (I) Phytylated derivatives

• New methods have been developed for the production of specific chlorophyll standards.
• By first time, 16 phytylated chlorophylls have been analyzed with high resolution-MS2.
• New and specific MS2 reactions have been described for particular chlorophylls.
• New functional groups at the isocyclic ring mean characteristic productions.
• New reaction mechanism explains the exclusive CO loss for series b derivatives.

Phytylated chlorophyll derivatives undergo specific oxidative reactions through the natural metabolism or during food processing or storage, and consequently pyro-, 132-hydroxy-, 151-hydroxy-lactone chlorophylls, and pheophytins (a and b) are originated. New analytical procedures have been developed here to reproduce controlled oxidation reactions that specifically, and in reasonable amounts, produce those natural target standards. At the same time and under the same conditions, 16 natural chlorophyll derivatives have been analyzed by APCI-HPLC-hrMS2 and most of them by the first time. The combination of the high-resolution MS mode with powerful post-processing software has allowed the identification of new fragmentation patterns, characterizing specific product ions for some particular standards. In addition, new hypotheses and reaction mechanisms for the established MS2-based reactions have been proposed. As a general rule, the main product ions involve the phytyl and the propionic chains but the introduction of oxygenated functional groups at the isocyclic ring produces new and specific productions and at the same time inhibits some particular fragmentations. It is noteworthy that all b derivatives, except 151-hydroxy-lactone compounds, undergo specific CO losses. We propose a new reaction mechanism based in the structural configuration of a and b chlorophyll derivatives that explain the exclusive CO fragmentation in all b series except for 151-hydroxy-lactone b and all a series compounds.