Characterization of sphingosine long‐chain bases by fast atom bombardment and high‐energy collision‐induced decomposition tandem mass spectrometry

The fragmentation of protonated and cationized sphingosine and sphinganine under metastable and high-energy collision-induced decomposition is reported. The protonated compounds undergo abundant charge-remote fragmentation of the long alkyl chain, while the cationized molecules yield much less abundant fragmentation and little or no electrocyclic fission of the hydrocarbon portion.