Mass spectrometric studies on the fragmentation and structural characterization of aminoacyl derivatives of kanamycin A

Described herein are the fragmentation pathways of kanamycin A and its 6′-N- and 1-N-acyl derivatives, as well as the determination of their positional isomers by FABMS and ESIMS in combination with tandem mass spectrometry. The presence or absence of key ions and the difference in abundance of common ions are correlated with the position of the substitution.