Mangiferin,
a natural flavonoid compound with multiple biological
activities (e.g., anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-diabetic,
and anti-tumor), has gained increased research interest in recent
years. Nevertheless, the metabolic processing of mangiferin has not
been fully investigated. In this study, a rapid and efficient analytical
strategy named “Drug Metabolite Clusters” was applied
for comprehensive profiling of mangiferin metabolites in rat plasma,
urine, and feces samples in vivo following oral administration and
liver microsomes in vitro. First, the biological samples were pretreated
with methanol, acetonitrile, and solid phase extraction (SPE) for
further liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS)
analysis. Second, the raw data were acquired using ultra-high performance
liquid chromatography quadrupole exactive orbitrap high-resolution
mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap HRMS) under the positive
and negative full-scan/dd MS2 modes. Third, mangiferin
and its basic metabolites (norathyriol, trihydroxyxanthone, and dihydroxyxanthone)
were selected as mangiferin metabolite cluster centers by referring
to the relevant literature. Subsequently, according to the pyrolysis
law of mass spectrometry, literature reports, and reference material
comparison, especially the diagnostic product ions (DPIs), the candidate
metabolites were accurately preliminarily identified, and mangiferin
metabolite clusters based on metabolite cluster center changes were
formed. As a result, a total of 67 mangiferin metabolites (mangiferin
included) were detected, including 29 in plasma, 48 in urine, 12 in
feces, and 6 in liver microsomes. Among them, trihydroxyxanthones
were first detected in rat urine samples after oral mangiferin. We
found that mangiferin mainly underwent deglucosylation, dehydroxylation,
methylation, glucuronidation, sulfation, and other composite reactions
in rats. Herein, we have elucidated the metabolites and metabolic
pathways of mangiferin in vivo and in vitro, which provided an essential
theoretical basis for further pharmacological studies of mangiferin
and a comprehensive research method for the identification of drug
metabolites.