title: Studies on principal components and antioxidant activity of different Radix Astragali samples using high-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization multiple-stage tandem mass spectrometry.
abstract: The principal components, isoflavonoids and astragalosides, in the extract of Radix Astragali were detected by a high-performance liquid chromatography couple to electrospray ionization ion trap multiple-stage tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-IT-MS(n)) method. By comparing the retention time (t(R)) of HPLC, the ESI-MS(n) data and the structures of analyzed compounds with the data of reference compounds and in the literature, 17 isoflavonoids and 12 astragalosides have been identified or tentatively deduced. By virtue of the extracted ion chromatogram (EIC) mode, simultaneous determination of isoflavonoids and astragalosides could be achieved when the different components formed overlapped peaks. And this method has been utilized to analyze the constituents in extracts of Radix Astragali from Helong City and of different growth years. Then the antioxidant activity of different samples has been successfully investigated by HPLC-ESI-MS method in multiple selected ion monitoring (MIM) mode, applying the spin trapping technology, and the Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) assay was applied to support the result. The correlations of the isoflavonoids and astragalosides components and the antioxidant activities of Radix Astragali were summarized. The present paper demonstrates that HPLC-ESI-MS(n) is a powerful method for the characterization of the principal components and evaluation of the antioxidant activity of Chinese medicinal herbs.
authors.affiliation: Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun Center of Mass Spectrometry, Changchun 130022, PR China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Fengrui
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Zhiqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Shuying
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000975:Antioxidants / Q000032:analysis*; D027883:Astragalus Plant / Q000737:chemistry*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D007529:Isoflavones / Q000032:analysis; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000032:analysis*; D012503:Saponins / Q000032:analysis; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D007529:Isoflavones; D010936:Plant Extracts; D012503:Saponins