title: A high performance liquid chromatography fingerprinting and ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry chemical profiling approach to rapidly find characteristic chemical markers for quality evaluation of dispensing granules, a case study on Chuanxiong Rhizoma.
abstract: A high performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detector (HPLC-PDA) fingerprinting and ultra high performance liquid chromatography-photodiode array detector coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-PDA-QTOF-MS/MS) based chemical profiling approach was developed to rapidly find characteristic chemical markers for quality control of dispensing granules, taking Chuanxiong Rhizoma (CR) as a model herb. Firstly, CR crude drugs, their traditional decoctions and CR dispensing granules were analyzed by HPLC-PDA to rapidly establish the fingerprints and thereby generate the simulative median chromatograms of CR crude drugs, decoctions and dispensing granules, and by comparing the simulative median chromatograms, major characteristic peaks of CR decoctions and dispensing granules could be determined. Secondary, UHPLC-PDA-QTOF-MS/MS was used to identify the major characteristic peaks of CR decoctions and dispensing granules. The identities of three major peaks were elucidated and confirmed to be ferulic acid (1), senkyunolide I (2) and senkyunolide H (3) by comparing the mass/UV spectra and retention times with that of the reference compounds. Thirdly, an HPLC-PDA method was validated to quantify the three characteristic components in commercial CR dispensing granules. The average contents of ferulic acid and senkyunolide H were found to be less than 1.0mg/g, whereas that of senkyunolide I was 4.40mg/g in CR dispensing granules, which indicated that senkyunolide I might be chosen as a suitable quantitative marker, while ferulic acid and senkyunolide H as qualitative markers for the quality evaluation of CR dispensing granules. It is suggested that this newly established approach could be used to practically and rapidly find suitable marker compounds for quality control of dispensing granules derived from other medicinal herbs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis and Metabolomics, Jiangsu Province Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210028, PR China; Department of Chinese Medicines Analysis, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Lin
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Li-Fang
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ling-Ying
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Ying-Jia
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Song-Lin
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Shi-Lin
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hong-Xi
authors.initials: HX
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D001572:Benzofurans / Q000032:analysis; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D003373:Coumaric Acids / Q000032:analysis; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000032:analysis; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry; D011786:Quality Control; D012015:Reference Standards; D027343:Rhizome / Q000737:chemistry*; D012984:Software; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry; D013678:Technology, Pharmaceutical
chemical_list: D001572:Benzofurans; D003373:Coumaric Acids; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D010936:Plant Extracts; C584604:senkyunolide H; C576743:senkyunolide I; C004999:ferulic acid
keywords: Characteristic chemical marker; Chuanxiong Rhizoma; Dispensing granule; HPLC-PDA fingerprinting; UHPLC-PDA-QTOF-MS/MS