Scutellaria baicalensis is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine containing multiple components, which has been extensively used in clinics to treat epidemic febrile disease and hyperactivity cough. To get a deeper understanding about Scutellaria baicalensis stem-leaf resources, we analyzed 15 chemical constituents in 35 batches of Scutellaria baicalensis stem-leaf from eight regions in China. A rapid, simple, and sensitive method using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole electrospray tandem mass spectrometry has been developed for the first time to simultaneously determine 15 chemical constituents (including phenolic acids and flavonoids) in Scutellaria baicalensis stem-leaf. Sufficient separation of 15 target constituents was achieved on a Waters Acquity UPLC BEH C (2.1 mm × 100 mm, 1.7 μm) column within 14 min under the optimized chromatographic conditions. The established method was validated and showed good linearity, precision, repeatability, stability, and recovery and was successfully applied for the simultaneous determination of the 15 chemical constituents in these samples. Hierarchical clustering analysis and principal components analysis were performed to estimate and classify these samples based on the contents of the 15 chemical constituents. This study provided theoretical basis and scientific evidence for the development and utilization of Scutellaria baicalensis stem-leaf resources.
Background:The simultaneous determination of multiple components in a sample is an important
factor in the quality control of traditional Chinese medicines and can give an indication of potential
clinical applications.Introduction:A rapid and sensitive method has been introduced for the simultaneous quantitative analysis
of eight bioactive flavonoid constituents from Scutellariae Radix using ultra-high performance
liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry.Methods:The separation was performed on a Waters Acquity UPLC C18 column (2.1 mm×100 mm, 1.7
μm), under optimized mass spectrometry conditions, with a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. The column temperature
was maintained at 35°C and the injection volume was 3 μL.Results:The method showed a good linear relationship of each component; all R2 values were above
0.9990 in the experiment. The RSDs of the precision test, repeatability test, stability test and recovery
test were all not more than 2.86 %. We found that the total percentage amounts of the eight flavonoids
were 22.19%, 18.63% and 10.86% in Raw Scutellariae Radix (RSR), Wine Scutellaria Radix (WSR)
and Scutellaria Radix Charcoal (SRC) respectively.Conclusion:The method was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of the eight bioactive
flavonoids of Raw Scutellariae Radix, Wine Scutellaria Radix and Scutellaria Radix Charcoal.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.