title: Identification of the major constituents in Xuebijing injection by HPLC-ESI-MS.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Xuebijing injection (XBJ) is a traditional Chinese herbal prescription widely used in the treatment of sepsis. This is the first report concerning the identification of XBJ constituents. In addition, to evaluate XBJ's quality, partial least square discrimination analysis (PLS-DA) was performed on chemical fingerprint data.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Establish an LC-MS method to identify the components in XBJ for the purpose of quality control.
  
  
  METHODS
  Compounds were separated by HPLC using a C(18) column and gradient elution of acetonitrile-methanol (60:40, v/v) and water-acetic acid (100 : 0.5, v/v) in 80 min. HPLC equipped with diode array detector (DAD) coupled with time-of-flight (TOF) tandem mass spectrometry and HPLC electrospray ionisation (ESI) multi-stage tandem ion-trap mass spectrometry (IT-MS(n) ) method was developed to analyse XBJ's major components. Both positive and negative ionisation modes were employed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-one compounds including amino acids, phenolic acids, flavonoid glycoside, terpene glycoside and phthalide were identified or tentatively characterised. Their retention times, UV and MS spectra were compared with those of authentic compounds or literature data. The score plot of PLS-DA clearly revealed variations among samples produced in different commercial batches.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The analytical method developed is highly effective for the discrimination and quality control of XBJ.
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Lanxin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Shengyou
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Guoan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D001572:Benzofurans / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D002599:Chalcone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D005707:Gallic Acid / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010860:Pigments, Biological / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D011809:Quinones / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods*; D014529:Uridine / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D053630:Depsides
chemical_list: D001572:Benzofurans; D002599:Chalcone; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D005707:Gallic Acid; D010860:Pigments, Biological; D011809:Quinones; D014529:Uridine; C549376:Xuebijing; C085278:hydroxysafflor yellow A; C076944:salvianolic acid B; D053630:Depsides