www.jss-journal.com Page 1 Journal of Separation Science Received: 08-Feb-2015; Revised: 31-Mar-2015; Accepted: 02-Apr-2015 This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/jssc.201500162. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Free amino acids analysis by liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry in several botanicals with antioxidant character Serban C. Moldoveanu 1* , Jeff Zhu 2 , Nancy Qian 2 1. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Winston-Salem NC, USA 2. Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories, Inc. * Corresponding author E-mail address: smoldov@aol.com