Rapid characterization and determination of multiple components in Bu‐Shen‐Yi‐Qi‐Fang by high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization and quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

Abstract

In this study, a qualitative and quantitative analysis using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was performed for the quality control of Bu-Shen-Yi-Qi-Fang, a traditional Chinese formula used for asthma. Thirty-four compounds, including flavonoids, isoflavonoids, triterpenoid saponins, and iridoid glycosides were identified or tentatively characterized by comparing their retention times and mass spectra with those of authentic standards or literature data. Sixteen components were considered as the main bioactive constituents of Bu-Shen-Yi-Qi-Fang and they were chosen as the chemical markers in quantitative analysis, including catalpol, leonuride, calycosin-7-O-β-d-glucoside, hyperoside, acteoside, formononetin-7-O-β-D-glucoside, epimedin A, calycosin, icariin, epimedin B, epimedin C, formononetin, astragaloside IV, astragaloside II, baohuoside-I, and astragaloside I. The total run time was 20 min. It was found that the calibration curves for all analytes showed good linearity (R(2) > 0.99) within the test ranges. The relative standard deviations for intra- and inter-day precisions were below 3.9 and 11.7%, respectively. The accuracy was evaluated by the recovery test within the range of 89.20-110.71% with the relative standard deviation < 4.8%. The sample was stable for at least 48 h at 4°C. The results showed that the new approach was effective for the quality control of Bu-Shen-Yi-Qi-Fang.

The Anti‐Inflammatory Effects of Invigorating Kidney and Supplementing Qi Chinese Herbal Formulae in Asthma Patients

“…The flow rate was 0.35 ml/min, and the injection volume was 3  μ L. The MS parameters were as follows: flow rate of drying gas (nitrogen) 10 L/min, nebulizer pressure 30 psig, drying gas temperature (nitrogen) 350°C, and capillary voltage 3500 V. The detection wave length for BSFC was 254 nm. For details, please see our researches [19, 20, 23, 30, 31]. …”

Simultaneous qualitative and quantitative analysis of flavonoids and alkaloids from the leaves of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. using high‐performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

“…Q‐TOF‐MS, which provides the elemental composition of detected ions using a combination of high acquisition speeds and accurate mass measurements, is able to provisionally identify unknown compounds . Q‐TOF‐MS instruments also have higher sensitivity than other types of mass spectrometer under full scan mode .…”

Ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization/quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry for the rapid analysis of constituents in the traditional Chinese medicine formula Wu Ji Bai Feng Pill

“…Iridoid glycosides generally contain a glucosyl moiety substituted at the C‐1 position in the pyran ring. Neutral loss of a glucosyl moiety and consecutive losses of H 2 O, CH 3 O, and CO were reported as the fragmentation pathway for the iridoid glycosides .…”

“…Its fragment ions displayed at m/z 181 [M–H–Glu] − , 199 [M–H–(Glu‐H 2 O)] − , and 169 [M–H–(Glu‐H 2 O)‐CH 2 O] – were assigned based on some possible fragmentation pathways indicated by the MassFragment software Thus, it was tentatively assigned to be catalpol. Similarly, other iridoid glycosides were tentatively assigned on the basis of characteristic fragment ions and literature reports .…”