title: Characterization of eight terpenoids from tissue  cultures of the Chinese herbal plant, Tripterygium  wilfordii, by high-performance liquid  chromatography coupled with electrospray  ionization tandem mass spectrometry.
abstract: In this study, a reliable method for analysis and identification of eight terpenoids in tissue cultures of Tripterygium wilfordii has been established using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS). Our study indicated that sterile seedlings, callus cultures and cell-suspension cultures can rapidly increase the amount of biological materials. HPLC-ESI-MS was used to identify terpenoids from the extracts of these tissue cultures. Triptolide, triptophenolide, celastrol and wilforlide A were unambiguously determined by comparing the retention times, UV spectral data, and mass fragmentation behaviors with those of the reference compounds. Another four compounds were tentatively identified as triptonoterpenol, triptonoterpene, 22β-hydroxy-3-oxoolean-12-en-29-oic acid and wilforlide B, based on their UV and mass spectrometry spectra. The quantitative analysis showed that all three materials contain triptolide, triptophenolide, celastrol, wilforlide A, and the contents of the four compounds in the cell-suspension cultures were 53.1, 240, 129 and 964 µg/g, respectively, which were at least 2.0-fold higher than these in the sterile seedlings and callus cultures. Considering the known pharmacological activity of triptolide and celastrol, we recommend the cell-suspension cultures as biological materials for future studies, such as clinical and toxicological studies. The developed method was validated by the evaluation of its precision, linearity, detection limits and recovery, and it was successfully used to identify and quantify the terpenoids in the tissue cultures.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Qiqing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Xiujuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaoqing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yuru
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Luqi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D016014:Linear Models; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods*; D013729:Terpenes / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D029757:Tripterygium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts; D013729:Terpenes