Analysis of chemical variations between raw and wine‐processed Ligustri Lucidi Fructus by ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography–Q‐Exactive Orbitrap/MS combined with multivariate statistical analysis approach

Abstract

Ligustri Lucidi Fructus (LLF) is the dried and mature fruit of Ligubtrum lucidum Ait., which has the effect of nourishing the liver and kidney, brightening the eyes and promoting the growth of black hair. Wine‐processed LLF is commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine; however, the processing mechanisms are still unclear. Herein, a system data acquisition and mining strategy was designed to investigate the chemical profile differences between the raw and wine‐processed LLF, based on high‐performance liquid chromatography–Orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry coupled with multivariate statistical analysis including principal component analysis and partial least square analysis. Afterwars, a total of 55 components were found to be the main contributors to the significant difference between raw and wine‐processed LLF by comparison with chromatographic behaviors, intact precursor ions, and characteristic MS fragmentation patterns. In addition, 10 main constituents of raw and wine‐processed LLF were simultaneously determined by UHPLC–MS/MS for analyzing the content variations. Some structural transformation mechanisms during wine processing were deduced from the results. The results may provide a scientific foundation for deeply elucidating the wine‐processing mechanism of LLF.