Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Coniine and Other Hemlock Alkaloids after On-Tissue Derivatization Reveals Distinct Alkaloid Distributions in the Plant.

Specialized metabolites play important roles in plants and can, for example, protect plants from predators or pathogens. Alkaloids, due to their pronounced biological activity on higher animals, are one of the most intriguing groups of specialized metabolites, and many of them are known as plant defense compounds. Poison hemlock,