Ultrahigh‐performance liquid chromatography coupled to ion mobility quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry profiling and unveiling the transformation of ginsenosides by the dual conditions of citric acid and high‐pressure steaming

Abstract

Rationale: Many methods have been reported for the production of rare ginsenosides, including heat treatment, acid hydrolysis, alkaline hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis, and microbial transformation. However, the conversion of original ginsenosides to rare ginsenosides under the dual conditions of citric acid and highpressure steam sterilization has rarely been reported.Methods: In this study, a method involving ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography coupled to ion mobility quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was developed for analysis of chemical transformation of protopanaxatriol (PPT)-type ginsenosides Rg 1 and Re, protopanaxadiol (PPD)-type ginsenoside Rb 1 , and total ginsenosides in the dual conditions of citric acid and highpressure steam sterilization. An internal ginsenoside database containing 126 known ginsenosides and 18 ginsenoside reference compounds was established to identify the transformation products and explore possible transformation pathways and mechanisms.Results: A total of 54 ginsenosides have been preliminarily identified in the transformation products of PPD-type ginsenosides Rg 1 and Re, PPD-type ginsenoside Rb 1 , and total ginsenosides, and the possible transformation pathways were as follows:

Comprehensive multicomponent characterization and quality assessment of Shuang‐Huang‐Lian powder injection using ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography‐quadrupole time‐of‐flight‐mass spectrometry and ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography‐quadrupole‐Orbitrap‐mass spectrometry

“…The low‐energy and high‐energy intensity thresholds were set for 500 and 1000 counts, respectively; target match tolerance of 10 ppm and fragment match tolerance of 10 mDa for identified compounds were allowed; negative adducts containing +CH 3 COO − , +HCOO − , +Cl − , and reference mass were identified as 554.2620. Based on the aforementioned method, raw MS E data were processed using the UNIFI system for peak picking, database retrieval, peak annotation, and report generation 22 . The data processing flow chart is shown in Figure 2.…”

“…Based on the aforementioned method, raw MS E data were processed using the UNIFI system for peak picking, database retrieval, peak annotation, and report generation. 22 The data processing flow chart is shown in The high-precision MS data were acquired using a heated electrospray ionization source in negative ion mode. Before sample determination, positive/negative ion mass calibration solution was used to calibrate the mass spectrometer.…”