title: A direct ionization mass spectrometry-based approach for differentiation of medicinal Ephedra species.
abstract: Herein, rapid and efficient identification of species of medicinal Ephedrae Herba was performed using DI-MS (direct ionization-mass spectrometry)-based metabolomics analysis. As a direct ionization technique, DI-MS can provide rapid analysis of samples without sample preparation, so it has been advantageously applied to high-throughput metabolomics analysis. In this flow chart, the MS fingerprints of Ephedrae Herba samples obtained by DI-MS method were firstly pretreated by background subtracts, smooth and center procedures to extract MS features. Then, these MS features were aligned using in a house program written in MATLAB to produce MS dataset. After that, PCA and PLS-DA analysis were performed based on the obtained MS dataset. Finally, the parameter VIP (Variable importance in the Projection) was employed to screen the valuable MS features for discrimination. Using such an approach, three medicinal species of Ephedrae Herba, Ephedra sinica, Ephedra intermedia, and Ephedra equisetina., had been successfully differentiated. Additionally, this method has also been applied to identify the changes in components of Ephedrae Herba after honey treated. In present study, DI-MS in combination with metabolomics was shown to be an efficient and accurate way to identify the sources of herbs.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Department of Chinese Medicines Analysis, China Pharmaceutical University, No. 24 Tongjia Lane, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Gui-Zhong
authors.initials: GZ
authors.lastname: Xin
authors.affiliation: Food Safety and Technology Research Centre, State Key Laboratory of Chirosciences and Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, China; State Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology (Incubation), Shenzhen Research Institute of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Shenzhen 518057, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of New Drug Delivery Systems of Chinese Meteria Medica, Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Chinese Medicine, Jiangsu, Nanjing 210028, China.
authors.forename: Zi-Qi
authors.initials: ZQ
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Department of Chinese Medicines Analysis, China Pharmaceutical University, No. 24 Tongjia Lane, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Jia-Yi
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Department of Chinese Medicines Analysis, China Pharmaceutical University, No. 24 Tongjia Lane, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Department of Chinese Medicines Analysis, China Pharmaceutical University, No. 24 Tongjia Lane, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Wen-Qi
authors.initials: WQ
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Department of Chinese Medicines Analysis, China Pharmaceutical University, No. 24 Tongjia Lane, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Food Safety and Technology Research Centre, State Key Laboratory of Chirosciences and Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, China; State Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology (Incubation), Shenzhen Research Institute of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Shenzhen 518057, China. Electronic address: zhongping.yao@polyu.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Zhongping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, Department of Chinese Medicines Analysis, China Pharmaceutical University, No. 24 Tongjia Lane, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: liulifang69@126.com.
authors.forename: Li-Fang
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D029789:Ephedra / Q000737:chemistry*; D029790:Ephedra sinica / Q000737:chemistry; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal
keywords: Direct ionization-mass spectrometry; Ephedrae Herba; Herbal discrimination; High throughput; Metabolomics