Chemical composition analysis of Diandengtai Baochun in Qiang medicine based on UPLC-Q-Exactive-Orbitrap-MS
Zhongdian Lantern Tower is a Primula chungensis Balf plant in the Primulaceae family f. The dried whole herb of et Ward is a commonly used heat clearing medicine in Qiang medicine clinical practice. In the books “Qiang Medicine” and “Dictionary of Chinese Ethnic Medicine”, it is recorded that Zhongdian Dengtai Baochun is made of Qiang medicine called Yenaxi and Pubendashibo, which are used to treat abdominal pain with whole herbs and dissolve alcohol poisoning by soaking roots in wine. At present, there is relatively little research on the Zhongdian Diantai Spring Festival. Li Qingjun studied its systematic differentiation and evolution process, which is of great significance for its introduction and resource protection. However, there have been no reports on the chemical composition of Zhongdian Diantai Spring Festival. The traditional methods for separating and purifying natural products have disadvantages such as large and cumbersome workload, low separation efficiency, incomplete analysis of active ingredients, and easy loss of trace compounds. Ultra high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole electrostatic field orbital trap mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-Hexactive Orbitrap MS) technology has become the main means for rapid separation and identification of active ingredients in natural medicines, with characteristics of fast analysis speed, high sensitivity, high resolution, and high quality accuracy. It has been widely used for the analysis of chemical components in Chinese herbal medicine, formulations, and other products. Therefore, in this experiment, UPLC-Q-Exactive-Orbitrap-MS technology was used to rapidly, accurately, and comprehensively identify the various chemical components in Diandengtai Baochun, a Qiang medicine, by comparing the retention time information, precise molecular weight, fragment ion information, PDA spectra, and relevant literature of the reference standard. The aim is to lay a foundation for the subsequent study of its pharmacological substance basis and quality control.

This study established for the first time an analytical method for the chemical composition of Zhongdian Diantai Baochun based on UPLC-Q-Exactive-Orbitrap-MS technology. Compared with low resolution chromatography, this method has the advantages of high sensitivity and good separation. The ESI ion source used in mass spectrometry can collect data in both positive and negative ion modes, providing comprehensive mass spectrometry data. At the same time, by analyzing the mass spectrometry fragments through auxiliary databases and combining with reference data and relevant literature reports, a total of 92 chemical components were identified in Zhongdian Dengtai Baochun, mainly including flavonoids, organic acids, fatty acids, phenylpropanoids, cyclohexene ether terpenes, amino acids, etc. Most of the class compounds have good response values in negative ion mode, but some amino acid compounds also have good response values in positive ion mode. For example, compound 1 has an excimer ion peak m/z of 148.0599 [M+H]+in positive ion mode, and the main ion fragment peaks in secondary mass spectrometry are 130.0498 and 102.0584, respectively, formed by the loss of NH4 and CO2 neutral molecules in [M+H]+. According to the literature, compound 1 is confirmed to be glutamic acid. Similarly, in the positive ion mode, compounds 7, 13, 28, and 43 are inferred to be leucine, L-glutamyl-L-leucine, N-acetyl-L-phenylalanine, and N-acetyl-DL-tryptophan, respectively.

This method can achieve rapid and accurate identification of the chemical components of Zhongdian Diantai Baochun, and the results comprehensively elucidate the chemical composition of the plant, further clarify the basis of drug efficacy, and provide theoretical basis for clinical application and quality control and resource development of Qiang medicine Zhongdian Diantai Baochun.