Ingredients changes in Rehmanniae Radix processing based by HPLC-ELSD specific chromatogram / 中国中药杂志

To establish the HPLC-ELSD specific chromatogram analysis method of Rehmanniae Radix and Rehmanniae Radix Prae-parata, and analyze and compare their chemical compositions, so as to reveal the change regularity of compositions during the proces-sing. By HPLC-ELSD method, the chromatographic column for Prevail Carbohydrate ES(4.6 mm ×250 mm, 5 μm) was adopted, with acetonitrile(A)-water(B) as mobile phase for gradient elution, and the evaporative light-scattering detector was used. A total of 23 batches of Rehmannia Radix samples, and 25 batches of Rehmanniae Radix Praeparata samples and processing dynamic samples were compared. The established method had a great repeatability, precision and stability. Eight common chromatographic peaks were extracted from 23 batches of Rehmanniae Radix samples, 8 common peaks were extracted from 25 Rehmanniae Radix Praeparata, and 7 chromatographic peaks were identified. The composition ratio of Rehmannia Radix was changed greatly during the processing. When the simila-rity≥0.95 and the fructose peak area was more than 2 times of stachyose tetrahydrate or more than 20 times of raffinose, the processing degree conformed to the requirements of empirical identification. The three main oligosaccharides of Rehmanniae Radix were sucrose that was heated to generate fructose and glucose, stachyose tetrahydrate that was heated to generate melibiose, sucrose and fructose, and stachyose tetrahydrate that was heated to generate manninotriose. The change in the index of proportion between monosaccharides and oligosaccharides can be used as the quantitative criterion for the processing quality of Rehmanniae Radix Praeparata.

Study on original plant species and geographical distribution of Fructus Aurantii / 中国中药杂志

The original plant species of Fructus Aurantii are multitudinous and complex, and their requirements to the growing environment is strict. In order to clarify the original plant species and geographical distribution of Fructus Aurantii which recorded in the standards and circulated, used in commodity. The national and local standards of Chinese medicinal materials were collected and the original plants of Fructus Aurantii recoded in standards were found. Ten original plant species of Fructus Aurantii (including varieties of cultivars, the same below) were recorded in the Chinese pharmacopoeia and six local standards of Zhejiang, Yunnan and Guizhou etc. The producing areas and commodity in markets of Fructus Aurantii were investigated. The growth environment and geographical distribution of them were analyzed. There are six types of Fructus Aurantii i.e., Fructus Aurantii Chuan, Fructus Aurantii Xiang, Fructus Aurantii Jiang, Fructus Aurantii Qu, Fructus Aurantii Su, Fructus Aurantii Wen, and nineteen species of original plants in the practical commodities. There are four major Fructus Aurantii producing areas: Sichuan Basin, Dongting Lake Plain, Poyang Lake Plain, Jinqu Basin and its surrounding hilly areas. All of them are located in the area of the east longitude 104° to 121° and the northern latitudes 27° to 31°. There is a certain difference between the actual commodity and the standards of medicinal materials. It is suggested that the traditional mainstream types of Fructus Aurantii with fine quality should be accepted into Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and the types with poor quality should be withdrawn from Chinese Pharmacopoeia.

Fingerprint analysis of Fritillaria thunbergii using rapid resolution liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry / 中国中药杂志

A fingerprint method for quality assessment of Fritillaria thunbergii was developed by rapid resolution liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (RRLC-Q-TOF-MS). The separation was performed using Agilent Eclipse Plus C18 column (2.1 mm x 100 mm, 1.8 microm) by gradient elution with acetonitrile and 0.1% formic acid aqueous solution (containing 10 mmol x L(-1) ammonium formate) as the mobile phase. Q-TOF-MS was used to obtain the accurate mass for precursor and product ions. Under this chromatographic and MS condition, 12 batches of F. thunbergii and its adulterants (F. hupehensis and F. pallidiflora) were analyzed by RRLC-Q-TOF-MS. Fifteen steroidal alkaloids were identified from F. thunbergii, F. hupehensis and F. pallidiflora and nine were assigned as the common characteristic peaks for F. thunbergii. The RRLC-Q-TOF-MS fingerprint of F. thunbergii was different significantly with those of F. hupehensis and F. pallidiflora. The quality of 12 batches of F. thunbergii samples were finally evaluated by hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) and principle component analysis (PCA). This convenient and high specific method could be used to identify and evaluate the quality of the F. thunbergii.