Analysis of chemical constituents and six compounds in Qu‐feng‐sheng‐shi Granules via HPLC–ESI–Q/TOF–MSⁿ and HPLC–UV technique

Abstract

Qu‐feng‐sheng‐shi Granules (QFSSG), a common prescription for the treatment of chronic inflammation and allergic rhinitis, is widely used in the clinic as a traditional Chinese medicine. Chemical analysis and quality control studies of this formulation are relatively limited compared with pharmacological studies. In this study, a high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time‐of‐flight tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC–ESI–Q/TOF–MSn) was used to identify the components in this prescription. Next, to quantify six major compounds, an HPLC–UV method was developed and validated. The results showed that 53 compounds were identified based on the MSn data, retention time and previous reports, including 17 coumarins, 14 lignans, 10 chromones, nine phenylethanoid glycosides and three other compounds, were identified or tentatively assigned. Contents of six major bioactive compounds (4′‐O‐β‐glucopyranosyl‐5‐O‐methylvisamminol, Prim‐O‐glucosylcimifugin, forsythin, magnolin, imperatorin, isoimperatorin) could be determined by HPLC simultaneously. In addition, the potential anti‐inflammatory activity of six major compounds was determined too, and we found that four compounds (4′‐O‐β‐glucopyranosyl‐5‐O‐methylvisamminol, Prim‐O‐glucosylcimifugin, forsythin, imperatorin) have a potent nitric oxide inhibitory effect. In conclusion, this work provided comprehensive information on the quality control of QFSSG and evaluated the potential biological activity of the main components in QFSSG, which can contribute to understanding and using it more scientifically.

Phytochemical Analysis Using UPLC-MS/MS Combined with Network Pharmacology Methods to Explore the Biomarkers for the Quality Control of Lingguizhugan Decoction

“…As the phenylpropanoids polymers, the typical characteristic ion fragments of lignans are M/2 or M/3 peak, whose response intensity is relatively high. The other cleavage rules are consistent with phenylpropanols [ 23 ]. In the mass spectrogram of secoisolariciresinol (C 20 H 26 O 6 , [M-H] − , P64), it is observed that the parent ion is m/ z 361.1683, with the daughter ion M/2–1 peak m/ z 179.0712.…”