Integrated mass spectrometry in (semi-)metal speciation and its potential in phytochemistry

Despite the advances in modern molecular biology, dissecting the molecular mechanisms of metal and semi-metal transformations in plants is still among the greatest challenges in phytochemistry. The use of complementary atomic (elemental) and molecular techniques is often required for complete characterization of the interactions of (semi-)metals with plant biomolecules. Thus, hyphenated techniques that use inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for an element-specific detector coupled to liquid or gas chromatographic separations have been applied for studying (semi-)metal–biomolecule interactions in plant tissues. We give numerous examples to demonstrate the role of integrated molecular and atomic MS in advancing basic chemical knowledge in phytochemistry.