Chlormequat & Mepiquat analyzed with LCMS

Analysis of Chlormequat and Mepiquat can be challenging since they are extremely hydrophilic and are only weakly retained in reversed-phase HPLC which makes their separation difficult. In addition, these compounds are retained too strongly in normal-phase (non-polar solvents) chromatography. Due to this situation, the preferred method of analysis for these compounds was ion-pair chromatography using high ionic strength (> 150mM) ion-pair reagents.