Positive-ion electrospray ionisation Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance and ion trap mass spectrometry have been used to investigate the reactions of the flavonoids 3-hydroxyflavone, 5-hydroxyflavone, 5-methoxyflavoe, quercetin, quercitrin and rutin with monovalent Li+, Na+, K+ and Cs+, divalent Cu2+, Zn2+ and Pb2+ and trivalent La3+ and Eu3+ metal cations. The effect of capillary-skimmer potential difference and the ion residence time in the hexapole ion trap of the Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer are systematically investigated for the flavonoid-alkali and divalent metal ion experiment. It is observed that these variables impact significantly on the type of ions observed in the ESI experiments and hence the mass spectra. The binding selectivity of alkali metal ions towards 3-hydroxyflavone, 5-hydroxyflavone and 5-methoxyflavone are determined using the results from FTICR mass spectrometry experiments. The selectivity order follows the order Li+>Na+>K+ for individual flavonoids. Collision-induced dissociation experiments are carried out by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance and ion trap mass spectrometry to compare the fragmentation behaviour of metal-flavonoid complexes. Low energy collision-induced dissociation experiments of the [2L+M]+ for 3-hydroxyflavone, 5-hydroxyflavone and 5-methoxyflavone alkali metal complexes show the loss of ligand only. When the energy is increased only the lithiated dimer [2L+Li]+ for 5-methoxyflavone shows the loss of methyl radical along with the ligand. For quercitrin the predominant dissociation pathways are the loss of rhamnose for Li+, Na+ and K+ complexes although aglycone loss is also observed for the K+ complex. The favourable dissociation pathways for rutin are the loss of disaccharide, aglycone and rhamnose for the Na+ complex and the loss of disaccharide for the K+ complex. Collision-induced dissociation data are also used to determine the threshold dissociation energies for displacement of one flavonoid ligand from alkali metal flavonoid complexes. The threshold dissociation energies for loss of one ligand from [2L+M]+ of 5-methoxyflavone and quercitrin follow the order Li+ > Na+ > K+, rutin follows the order Na+ > K+ > Li+ , and 3-hydroxyflavone and 5-hydroxyflavone follow the order Li+ > Na+. For the same metal cation experiment, 5-methoxyflavone system has the highest dissociation energy compared to the 3-hydroxyflavone and 5-hydroxyflavone experiment. Preliminary DFT calculations show that the calculated dissociation energies follow the same trend as the experimental dissociation energies for the simple flavonoid alkali metal cation experiments. For 5-methoxyflavone-divalent metal cation (Zn2+, Cu2+ and Pb2+) complexes loss of methyl radical is the common process. CO loss is also observed for the Zn2+ complex whereas CHO and H2O losses are observed for Cu2+. For 3-hydroxyflavone and 5-hydroxyflavone divalent metal cation experiments loss of ligand is the dominant process. Zn2+ and Cu2+ complexes also show CO loss. La3+ and Er3+ with the same flavonoids show the ligand as the dominant product. For quercetin-divalent metal cation experiment, ligand loss is the dominant process. For quercitrin and rutin various dissociation products are observed where the dissociation occurs via the loss of the rhamnose and/or the disaccharide moieties. Similar dissociation patterns are also observed for La3+ and Er3+ complexes for quercitrin and rutin.