Chemical Profiling of an Antimigraine Herbal Preparation, Tianshu Capsule, Based on the Combination of HPLC, LC‐DAD‐MSⁿ, and LC‐DAD‐ESI‐IT‐TOF/MS Analyses

Abstract

Chemical profiling is always the first task in the standardization and modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine. HPLC and LC-MS were employed to find out the common chromatographic peaks in various batches of Tianshu Capsule (TSC) and the contribution of the characteristic peaks from individual herbs to the whole chromatographic profile of TSC sample. A total of 38 constituents were identified in TSC sample based on the comparison of retention time and UV spectra with authentic compounds as well as by summarized MS fragmentation rules and matching of empirical molecular formula with those of published components. This is the first systematic report on the chemical profiling of the commercial TSC product, which provides the sufficiently chemical evidence for the global quality evaluation of TSC products.

Profiling the constituents of Dachuanxiong decoction by liquid chromatography with high‐resolution tandem mass spectrometry using target and nontarget data mining

“…A total of 91 phthalides were characterized. Among them, 30 phthalides showed a molecular weight larger than 350 Da, indicating that they were phthalides dimers, and 21 compounds were characterized according to the reference standards and literature . Peak 49 (C 21 H 22 O 8 , m/z 401.1229) provided fragment ions at m/z 179.0348 C 9 H 7 O 4 – , 135.0449 C 8 H 7 O 2 – , and m/z of 221.0811 C 12 H 13 O 4 – , 177.0922 C 11 H 13 O 2 – , indicating the existence of caffeic acid and senkyunolide D. Peak 49 was hence tentatively assigned to senkyunolide D ‐caffeic acid conjugates.…”

“…Meanwhile, in the positive ion mode, nine alkyl phthalide monomers and five hydroxyl phthalide monomers were characterized as shown in Supporting Information Table S2 . In the negative ion mode, 49 hydroxyl phthalide monomers were discovered.…”

“…Peaks 52 , 55 , and 91 were unambiguously identified by comparison with reference standards. Based on the relevant literature , 13 peaks were identified. The precursor ion of peak 25 was observed at 354 Da according to C 16 H 18 O 9 more than parishin E and provided a weak intensity fragment ion at m/z 353.08, which indicated that peak 25 was tentatively assigned to parishin E coupled with chlorogenic acid.…”

“…However, due to the limitation of previously applied methods, only components that are highly abundant were detected in previous studies. Shen identified 11 central ingredients of active components of DCXD by using the HPLC‐DAD‐MS n coupling technique , Ni identified 17 major constituents in the 50% EtOH decoction of DCXD by LC‐Q‐TOF/MS , and Liang identified 38 constituents by LC‐DAD‐ESI‐IT‐MS n in the Tianshu capsule (DCXD preparation) . Therefore, it is vital to systematically and comprehensively characterize the composition of DCXD.…”

Systems pharmacology to decipher the combinational anti-migraine effects of Tianshu formula

“…Among these herbal formulae with effective anti-migraine functions, Tianshu formula which was originated from Da Chuan Xiong Fang and described in Xuan Ming Lun Fang, a well-known formulae book in China that was edited by Liu Wan-su in 1172 (Liang et al, 2014), has attracted our special interests. This formula is composed of two herbs, Rhizoma chuanxiong (R. chuanxiong, Chuan-Xiong) and…”