Integrated assessment of medicinal rhubarb by combination of delayed luminescence and HPLC fingerprint with emphasized on bioactivities based quality control

Abstract

Background: To promote herbal medicine depends largely on its quality. Chromatographic fingerprint is a frequent approach for quality assessment of herbs however with challenges on robust and reproducibility. To develop rapid, cheap and comprehensive measurements as complementary tools for herbal quality control are still urgently needed. Moreover, biological activities are essential for herbal quality, and should be taken into consideration with emphasized in quality control. Methods: In this research, HPLC fingerprint and delayed luminescence (DL, a rapid and systematic tool) were used to measure the rhubarb samples of multiple species. Statistics were explored to classify these rhubarb samples using data obtained from two analytic methods. In addition, DL properties were linked to specific chemical components which may reflect bioactivities of rhubarb using Spearman's rank correlation. Moreover, mice model was used to evaluate the cathartic effect between rhubarb samples stratifying by two analytic methods. Results: We found that there was no significant difference of chemical fingerprints and DL signals among the different species of medicinal rhubarb. However, our results show a high similarity between HPLC fingerprint analysis and DL measurements in classification of these rhubarb samples into two subgroups. In addition, the two subgroups of rhubarb samples that may have different cathartic activities. Conclusion: This approach provides new leads for development of herbal quality assessment based on bioactivity. In conclusion, integrated assessment by measuring HPLC fingerprint and DL with emphasized on bioactivity may provide novel strategy for herbal quality control.

Quality evaluation of rhubarb based on qualitative analysis of the HPLC fingerprint and UFLC–Q‐TOF–MS/MS combined with quantitative analysis of eight anthraquinone glycosides by QAMS

“…The reasons for this may be related to the different growth environments, primary processing methods, and so on (Sun et al, 2018; Wang et al, 2018). However, in general, the average content of the total anthraquinone glycosides in R. tanguticum was higher than that in R. palmatum and R. officinale , which is also basically consistent with the literature (Komatsu et al, 2006; Sun et al, 2020). Therefore, R. tanguticum should be selected preferentially.…”

“…Table 8 shows that the contents of eight anthraquinone glycosides and their total in three species of rhubarb and different batches of the same species have certain differences, which is basically consistent with literature (Sun et al, 2020). The reasons for this may be related to the different growth environments, primary processing methods, and so on (Sun et al, 2018; Wang et al, 2018).…”

“…Since Jin et al first performed HPLC fingerprinting of rhubarb (Jin et al, 2006), some progress in this area has been achieved. Sun et al established the HPLC fingerprints of 28 batches of three species of rhubarb and assigned 28 common peaks in these fingerprints, and the components of 15 peaks were identified by comparison of reference substances, including seven combination anthraquinones, five free anthraquinones, two tannins and one anthrone (Sun et al, 2020). In recent years, Q‐TOF–MS/MS technology has been applied to the components analysis of rhubarb (Gao et al, 2017; Liu et al, 2016; Yan et al, 2016; Zhang et al, 2015; Zhu et al, 2016).…”

Investigation of Quality Assessment for Different Grades of Velvet Antler: a Strategy Combined Microscopic Observation, Delayed Luminescence and Chemical Analysis

“…Recently, DL has been used to assess the quality features of dry powders prepared from plant-derived Chinese herbal materials [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. DL provides a new method for measuring plant-derived herbal materials which can be recognized as a rapid, direct and sensitive indicator of a wide range of herbs prepared in different grown environments, different age, different processing statues, as well as different therapeutic properties [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Thus, DL becomes a promising technique for herbal quality control, and it may become a novel tool to combine with other analytic technological platform such as high performance liquid chromatography ngerprint platform [17].…”

“…DL provides a new method for measuring plant-derived herbal materials which can be recognized as a rapid, direct and sensitive indicator of a wide range of herbs prepared in different grown environments, different age, different processing statues, as well as different therapeutic properties [11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. Thus, DL becomes a promising technique for herbal quality control, and it may become a novel tool to combine with other analytic technological platform such as high performance liquid chromatography ngerprint platform [17]. In order to evaluate whether DL can be used to create a quality assessment of animal-derived herbal medicine.…”