Comparison of Chemical Constituents in Scrophulariae Radix Processed by Different Methods based on UFLC-MS Combined with Multivariate Statistical Analysis

Abstract

Scrophulariae Radix is one of the most popular traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). Primary processing of Scrophulariae Radix is an important link which closely related to the quality of products in this TCM. The aim of this study is to explore the influence of different processing methods on chemical constituents in Scrophulariae Radix. The difference of chemical constituents in Scrophulariae Radix processed by different methods was analyzed by using ultra fast liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry coupled with principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis. Furthermore, the contents of 12 index differential constituents in Scrophulariae Radix processed by different methods were simultaneously determined by using ultra fast liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole-linear ion trap mass spectrometry. Gray relational analysis was performed to evaluate the different processed samples according to the contents of 12 constituents. All of the results demonstrated that the quality of Scrophulariae Radix processed by "sweating" method was better. This study will provide the basic information for revealing the change law of chemical constituents in Scrophulariae Radix processed by different methods and facilitating selection of the suitable processing method of this TCM.

UPLC/MS-based untargeted metabolomics reveals the changes of metabolites profile of Salvia miltiorrhiza bunge during Sweating processing

“…The initial processing of TCM is important and closely related to the quality of TCM's products 22 . The initial processing of medicinal materials is from the harvest of medicinal parts to the formation of commercial medicinal materials, such as preliminary treatment and drying 23 .…”

Scrophulariae Radix: An Overview of Its Biological Activities and Nutraceutical and Pharmaceutical Applications

“…Kim et al ( , 2012 [3,10] and Shin et al [4] reported that iridoid has been isolated from a wide variety of plants, including SB. Ren et al [2] isolated 162 compounds from SN and, similar to Zhang et al, reported that iridoids, iridoid glycosides [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29], phenolic acids, phenolic glycosides [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38], flavonoids [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46], terpenoids [47][48][49][50], organic acids [51,52], and other compounds [53][54]…”

“…Iridoids and iridoid glycosides [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] are reported to have various biological activities including anti-inflammatory activity, immunomodulatory activity, anti-diabetic effect, and cardiovascular protection effect. In addition, it is known that flavonoids [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] isolated from SN have anti-hypertension effects and terpenoids [47][48][49][50] have anti-oxidative activity. Previous studies exhibited the anti-inflammation activity, anti-platelet aggregation activity, and anti-tumor biological activity of phenylpropanoid glycosides [59][60][61][62][63][64][65].…”

A comprehensive study of the aerial parts of Lonicera japonica Thunb. based on metabolite profiling coupled with PLS‐DA

“…Chemical composition has historically presented a bottleneck in understanding of the elusive component‐effect correlation of TCMs. Many factors may lead to changes in the chemical composition of medicinal materials, including harvest season, 5,6 processing methods, 7 and biological and abiotic factors 8–10 . A systematic study of the chemical composition of LJF and LJC could identify the chemical markers that differentiate LJF and LJC, and could clarify their respective properties.…”