Screening of anti-fatigue active ingredients of Eleutherococcus senticosus via spectrum-effect relationship based on factor analysis and LC-MS/MS.

ES contains compounds known to have significant anti-fatigue activity. In recent years, it has received extensive attention because it is efficient. However, its active ingredients on antifatigue effect are still unclear. This study attempts to establish the spectrum-effect relationship of ES antifatigue activity to screen the effective components. The results showed that the similarity of 15 ES fingerprints obtained by LC-MS/MS was 0.533-0.992, and the chemical structures of 22 common peaks were identified. The anti-fatigue activity of 15 batches of ES was characterized by forced swimming test of mice and quantified by CAFI, among which S4, S1 and S5 had better activity. 9 components (caffeic acid, 5-(4-O-ß-D-glucosylferoyl)-quinic acid, (±)13-HODE, isofraxidin, eleutheroside E, syringin, pinoresinol diglucoside or its isomer, 7,8-dihydrodehydrocarbinol alcohol-4-O-ß-D-glucoside, secoisolariciresinol-4-O-ß-D-glucoside) highly related to anti-fatigue activity may be the effective components of ES.

Quality evaluation of Acanthopanax senticosus via quantitative analysis of multiple components by single marker and multivariate data analysis.

A comprehensive method for the evaluation of Acanthopanax senticosus (AS) was established by the quantitative analysis of multiple components by single marker (QAMS), fingerprint, similarity analysis (SA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), and factor analysis (FA) based on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A total of 27 common peaks were identified in the standard fingerprint of 20 batches of AS from different regions in China, of which 8 peaks were identified as protocatechuic acid, syringin, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, eleutheroside E, hyperoside, isofrqxidin, and acacetin, and the concentrations of these eight components were determined simultaneously by QAMS. The results showed that the QAMS method was effective and feasible compared with the external standard method (ESM) (RD < 3.3 %, P ≤ 0.01). Sample 1 (S1) was used as the reference chromatogram, the similarity of other samples was between 0.765 and 0.968. Through HCA, AS could be mainly divided into two production areas, the north Liaoning (including Liaoning) and the south Liaoning areas. Furthermore, FA showed that the quality of AS in the north Liaoning area was better than that in the south Liaoning area. In summary, the method established in this study can comprehensively and systematically evaluate quality differences in AS samples, and may be used to help to improve the quality control of AS.