A simple and green offline-online capillary electrophoresis stacking strategy for the simultaneous determination of hydrophobic compounds in complicated samples using sodium dodecyl sulfate as the solubilizer and pseudophase

Background Capillary electrophoresis is a powerful analytical method featured with high separation efficiency, minimal sample requirements, and reduced organic solvents consumption. However, its low sensitivity hinders its wide application in determination of trace analytes especially for the weakly ionized hydrophobic compounds. Offline and Online capillary electrophoresis stacking methods are more favored to enhance detection sensitivity of analytes. The determination of two sesquiterpenes and an alkaloid from the dried root of Lindera aggregata merged as an example for developing a simple, sensitive and green method for the simultaneous determination of two hydrophobic compounds in complicated matrix samples. Results An offline-online capillary electrophoresis stacking strategy by integrating micro matrix solid phase dispersion with field-amplified sample stacking and micelle to cyclodextrin stacking has been developed for the simultaneous determination of dehydrocostus lactone, linderane, norisoboldine in complex matrices. The optimized parameters were set at 65 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate, 35% methanol, 180 s for sample injection and 210 s for cyclodextrin injection, 20 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate of sample matrix for online stacking; 1:1 sample to MCM-48, 180 s grinding time, and 1,000 μL of 20 mM sodium dodecyl sulfate elution for offline procedure. Under the optimum conditions, the method showed good linearity with correlation coefficients (R2≥0.9927), low limits of detection within the range of 25-50 ng mL-1, satisfactory repeatability and reproducibility below 3.98%, and acceptable recoveries between 94% and 97%. The developed method was successfully applied to two real samples, the root of L. aggregata and rat feces. Significance Sodium dodecyl sulfate is firstly used as an eluent in micro matrix solid phase dispersion and plays a dual role throughout the analytical procedure, including extraction solvent in sample preparation and micelle pseudophase during online stacking. It brings great procedure convenience to the method. The sensitivity of this method can improve up to 1283-folds compared with the normal mode. Moreover, the overall strategy indicates satisfied green potential evaluated by greenness assessment tools