title: A generic multiple reaction monitoring based approach for plant flavonoids profiling using a triple quadrupole linear ion trap mass spectrometry.
abstract: Flavonoids are one of the largest classes of plant secondary metabolites serving a variety of functions in plants and associating with a number of health benefits for humans. Typically, they are co-identified with many other secondary metabolites using untargeted metabolomics. The limited data quality of untargeted workflow calls for a shift from the breadth-first to the depth-first screening strategy when a specific biosynthetic pathway is focused on. Here we introduce a generic multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)-based approach for flavonoids profiling in plants using a hybrid triple quadrupole linear ion trap (QTrap) mass spectrometer. The approach includes four steps: (1) preliminary profiling of major aglycones by multiple ion monitoring triggered enhanced product ion scan (MIM-EPI); (2) glycones profiling by precursor ion triggered EPI scan (PI-EPI) of major aglycones; (3) comprehensive aglycones profiling by combining MIM-EPI and neutral loss triggered EPI scan (NL-EPI) of major glycone; (4) in-depth flavonoids profiling by MRM-EPI with elaborated MRM transitions. Particularly, incorporation of the NH3 loss and sugar elimination proved to be very informative and confirmative for flavonoids screening. This approach was applied for profiling flavonoids in Astragali radix (Huangqi), a famous herb widely used for medicinal and nutritional purposes in China. In total, 421 flavonoids were tentatively characterized, among which less than 40 have been previously reported in this medicinal plant. This MRM-based approach provides versatility and sensitivity that required for flavonoids profiling in plants and serves as a useful tool for plant metabolomics.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, Macao, China.
authors.forename: Zhixiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Ge
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Yitao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ru
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yan
mesh_terms: D027885:Astragalus propinquus; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D005419:Flavonoids; D010936:Plant Extracts; D011134:Polysaccharides; C027492:Huang Qi