Development of a microwave-assisted extraction of atropine and scopolamine from Solanaceae family plants followed by a QuEChERS cleanup procedure

In this work, a novel method based on the microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), the QuEChERS dispersive solid-phase extraction and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry was developed for the determination of atropine and scopolamine in plant samples from Datura and Brugmansia genera, which belong to the Solanaceae family. The experimental conditions for MAE, such as temperature, time of extraction, and volume of the extracting solvent as well as extract purification procedure parameters were optimized by the Doehlert uniform shell design and the response surface methodology. For quantitative analysis and validation, a standard addition calibration method was used to reduce the matrix effect. The limits of detection from 3.0 to 3.4 µg g⁻¹ of dry matter and the linearity of the calibration dependence were suitable for the analysis of plant extracts. The repeatability and intermediate precision for both analytes were found to be acceptable (<15%). The developed method was successfully applied to the samples of leaves and seeds of Datura and Brugmansia.