Analysis of Chuanxiong Rhizoma substrate on production of ligustrazine in endophytic Bacillus subtilis by ultra high performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry

Ligustrazine was the active ingredient of the traditional Chinese medicine Chuanxiong Rhizoma. However, the content of ligustrazine is very low. We proposed a hypothesis that ligustrazine was produced by the mutual effects between endophytic Bacillus subtilis and the Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. This study aimed to explore whether the endophytic B. subtilis LB5 could make use of Chuanxiong Rhizoma fermentation matrix to produce ligustrazine and clarify the mechanisms of action preliminarily. Ultra high performance liquid chromatography with quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry analysis showed the content of ligustrazine in Chuanxiong Rhizoma was below the detection limit (0.1 ng/mL), while B. subtilis LB5 produced ligustrazine at the yield of 1.0268 mg/mL in the Chuanxiong Rhizoma‐ammonium sulfate fermentation medium. In the fermented matrix, the reducing sugar had a significant reduction from 12.034 to 2.424 mg/mL, and rough protein content increased from 2.239 to 4.361 mg/mL. Acetoin, the biosynthetic precursor of ligustrazine, was generated in the Chuanxiong Rhizoma‐Ammonium sulfate (151.2 mg/mL) fermentation medium. This result showed that the endophytic bacteria B. subtilis LB5 metabolized Chuanxiong Rhizoma via secreted protein to consume the sugar in Chuanxiong Rhizoma to produce a considerable amount of ligustrazine. Collectively, our preliminary research suggested that ligustrazine was the interaction product of endophyte, but not the secondary metabolite of Chuanxiong Rhizoma itself.     

Quantitative analysis and chromatographic fingerprinting of the semen zizyphi spinosae by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode-array detector

A simple and sensitive method was developed and validated for fingerprint analysis of semen zizyphi spinosae (SZS) and simultaneous determination of six flavonoids in SZS by ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode‐array detector (DAD). The analysis was performed on an Agilent ZORBAX Eclipse Plus C18 RRHD column. The column was maintained at 40°C and the eluents were monitored with DAD at 270 nm. A gradient elution of acetonitrile and water containing 20 mM sodium dihydrogen phosphate was used. The solvent flow rate was 0.4 mL/min. The method was validated. Standard calibration curves showed good linear behaviors (r=1.000) in the range of 0.33–201.00 μg/mL. Acceptable intra‐day precision (RSD<1.9%), inter‐day precision (RSD<4.0%), repeatability (RSD<4.1%) and recovery in the range of 97.4–104% were obtained. The validated method was successfully applied to obtain the chromatographic fingerprints and the contents of six flavonoids in 23 samples of SZS. The principal component analysis (PCA) had been applied for the chromatographic fingerprint analysis and quantitative analysis of six flavonoids to classify and discriminate the 23 samples of SZS. These results demonstrated that the method was very suitable in the analysis and quality control of SZS.     

Development of a method using high‐performance liquid chromatographic fingerprint and multi‐ingredients quantitative analysis for the quality control of Yangxinshi Pian

A simple and reliable method of high‐performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection method was developed for fingerprint analysis and simultaneous determination of six compounds including puerarin, salvianolic acid B, berberine hydrochloride, palmatine chloride, dehydrocorydaline, and icariin in the Chinese medicine preparation Yangxinshi Pian. The separation was performed on an Agilent Eclipse XDB‐C₁₈ reserved‐phase column (250 mm × 4.6mm I.D., 5 μm) using gradient elution with 50 mmol/L monopotassium phosphate aqueous solution and methanol as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The column operating temperature was set at 30°C, and the detection wavelength was 280 nm. The method was validated by linearity, precision, accuracy, stability, and recovery. For fingerprint analysis, 25 peaks were selected as the common peaks, and four kinds of similarities including cosine similarity (S), ratio of similarity (S′), projection content similarity (C), and content similarity (P) were applied to evaluate the quality consistency of different batches of Yangxinshi Pian. The results showed that the developed method was an efficient tool for quality evaluation of Yangxinshi Pian.     

高效液相色谱与质谱联用分析测定川芎中有效成分阿魏酸与藁本内酯

采用HPLC-MS系统地研究了中药川芎有效成分阿魏酸(ferykuc acid)和藁本内酯(liguatilide)的定量分析方法。利用制备色谱制备了藁本内酯对照品,并对其进行了紫外光谱、质谱、红外光谱等结构鉴定。分别考察了水、甲醇、乙醇、95％乙醇4种溶剂以及提取时间对川芎中阿魏酸和藁本内酯提取量的影响。结果表明：水是阿魏酸的最佳提取溶剂,提取时间45min为宜;乙醇是适合提取藁本内酯的溶剂,提取时间75min为宜。以外标法对市售川芎中的阿魏酸与藁本内酯进行了定量分析,二者含量分别是0．15％(m／m)和0．82％(m/m)。     

Classification of the medicinal plants of the genus Atractylodes using high‐performance liquid chromatography with diode array and tandem mass spectrometry detection combined with multivariate statistical analysis

Analytical methods using high‐performance liquid chromatography with diode array and tandem mass spectrometry detection were developed for the discrimination of the rhizomes of four Atractylodes medicinal plants: A. japonica, A. macrocephala, A. chinensis, and A. lancea. A quantitative study was performed, selecting five bioactive components, including atractylenolide I, II, III, eudesma‐4(14),7(11)‐dien‐8‐one and atractylodin, on twenty‐six Atractylodes samples of various origins. Sample extraction was optimized to sonication with 80% methanol for 40 min at room temperature. High‐performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection was established using a C₁₈ column with a water/acetonitrile gradient system at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, and the detection wavelength was set at 236 nm. Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry was applied to certify the reliability of the quantitative results. The developed methods were validated by ensuring specificity, linearity, limit of quantification, accuracy, precision, recovery, robustness, and stability. Results showed that cangzhu contained higher amounts of atractylenolide I and atractylodin than baizhu, and especially atractylodin contents showed the greatest variation between baizhu and cangzhu. Multivariate statistical analysis, such as principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis, were also employed for further classification of the Atractylodes plants. The established method was suitable for quality control of the Atractylodes plants.     

Total monitoring of the constituents of Danshen tablet using micellar electrokinetic chromatography fingerprinting for antioxidant activity profiling

A micellar electrokinetic chromatography fingerprint coupled with quantification was developed for assessing the quality consistency of Danshen tablets, a traditional Chinese medicine, with pharmacological activities of activating blood to remove blood stasis and regulating the flow of vital energy to alleviate pain. Square optimization method was proposed to select the suitable background electrolyte. Subsequently, the index of chromatographic fingerprints F was simultaneously employed as an objective function to evaluate capillary electrophoresis conditions. After that, the method was proved to meet the fingerprint analysis criteria by evaluating stability, linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, precision, accuracy, and repeatability. Moreover, systematic quantified fingerprint method was used to evaluate chromatographic fingerprints of 30 batches of samples in terms of both quality and quantitation. The result indicated that the chemical compositions of samples were basically similar while their contents showed marked variation. In addition, the fingerprint–efficacy relationship was established using partial least squares model, which can serve as anti‐oxidant activity evaluation of Danshen tablets as well as a reference for the selection of active constituents. The proposed method can be applied for the holistic quality control of Danshen tablets.     

Simultaneous qualitative and quantitative analyses of the major constituents in the rhizome of Ligusticum Chuanxiong using HPLC-DAD-MS

An HPLC-DAD-MS method was developed for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the major constituents in Chuanxiong (the dried rhizome of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort). Twenty compounds including phenolic constituents, alkylphthalides and phthalide dimers were identified using online ESI-MS and comparisons with literature data and standard compounds, and six of them were quantified by HPLC-DAD simultaneously. A comprehensive validation of the method including sensitivity, linearity, repeatability and recovery was conducted. The linear regressions were acquired with R(2) > 0.99 and limit of detection (LOD, S/N = 3) values were between 1.5 and 2.5 ng. The repeatability was evaluated by intra- and inter-day assays, and relative standard deviation (RSD) values were reported within 1.87%. The recovery studies for the quantified compounds were observed in the range of 96.36-102.37% with RSD values less than 2.63%. These phenolic constituents and alkylphthalides, the major constituents in Chuanxiong, are generally regarded as the index for the quality assessment of this herb. The overall procedure is accurate and reproducible, which is considered suitable for the qualitative and quantitative analyses of a large number of Chuanxiong samples.     

Fingerprint analysis and multi‐ingredient quantitative analysis for quality evaluation of Xiaoyanlidan tablets by ultra high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection

A rapid and sensitive ultra high performance liquid chromatography method with diode array detection was developed for the fingerprint analysis and simultaneous determination of seven active compounds in Xiaoyanlidan (XYLD) tablets. The chromatographic separations were obtained on an Agilent Eclipse plus C₁₈ column (50 × 2.1 mm id, 1.8 μm) using gradient elution with water/formic acid (1%) and acetonitrile at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. Within 63 min, 36 peaks could be selected as the common peaks for fingerprint analysis to evaluate the similarities among several samples of XYLD tablets collected from different manufacturers. In quantitative analysis, seven compounds showed good regression (R > 0.9990) within test ranges and the recovery of the method was within the range of 95.9–104.3%. The method was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of seven compounds in six batches of XYLD tablets. These results demonstrate that the combination of chromatographic fingerprint analysis and simultaneous multi‐ingredient quantification using the ultra high performance liquid chromatography method with diode array detection offers a rapid, efficient, and reliable approach for quality evaluation of XYLD tablets.     

Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis for the Quality Control of Rhizoma Coptidis by HPLC-DAD and HPLC-ESI-MS

For quality control purpose, an approach of fingerprinting and simultaneous quantification of five major bioactive constituents of Rhizoma Coptidis was established via a high-performance liquid chromatograph coupled with a photodiode array UV detector(HPLC-DAD) and an electrospray ionization mass spectrometer(HPLC-ESI/MS). The compounds were identified on the basis of the comparison of their mass spectra with literature data and those of standard samples and quantified by the HPLC-DAD method. Baseline separation was achieved on an XTerra C 18 column(5 μm, 250 mm×4.6 mm i. d.) with linear gradient elution of formate buffer(consisting of 0.5% formic acid, adjusted to pH=4.5 with ammonia) and acetonitrile(consisting of 0.2% formic acid and 0.2% triethylamine). The me-thod was validated for linearity(r 2 0.9995), repeatability(RSD3.1%), intra-and inter-day precision(RSD1.8%) with recovery(99.9%―105.1%), limits of detection(0.15―0.35 μg/mL), and limits of quantification(0.53―0.82 μg/mL). The similarities of 32 batches of Rhizoma Coptidis and their classification according to their manufacturers were based on the retention time and peak areas of the characteristic compounds. The five compounds were selected for quality assessment of Rhizoma coptidis via partial least squares analysis(PLS).     

Study on chemical constituents and fingerprints of Phellodendron amurense Rupr. based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography–quadrupole–time-of-flight–mass spectrometry

The chemical constituents from Phellodendron amurense Rupr. were characterized systematically by ultra-performance liquid chromatography—quadrupole–time-of-flight–mass spectrometry method for collecting mass spectrometry data, and the fingerprints method was established, providing reference for its quality control. The chromatographic column was ACQUITY UPLC BEH-C₁₈ (100 mm×2.1 mm, 1.7 μm). The mobile phase was acetonitrile-0.1% formic acid aqueous solution and the compounds from P. amurense Rupr. were identified by Qualitative Analysis 10.0 software, reference substance, retention time, mass spectrometry fragmentation pattern and database retrieval. Meanwhile, liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry fingerprint methods of P. amurense Rupr. and Phellodendron chinense Schneid. were established by using the similarity evaluation system of chromatographic fingerprint of traditional Chinese medicine (2012 edition), and the differences were analyzed by multivariate statistical analysis methods. A total of 105 compounds were identified, including 102 alkaloids, two phenolic acids, and one lactone compound. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry fingerprint method was established with ideal precision, stability and repeatability, and 12 quality differential markers were recognized between the above two herbs. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry method can be used for qualitative analysis of the constituents of Phellodendron amurense Rupr., providing reference for clarifying the material basis and promoting the clinical precision medication and quality evaluation of P. amurense Rupr.     

Quantification of pentaerythritol tetrastearate,a mold release agent used in polycarbonate,by non‐aqueous RP HPLC method

A new non‐aqueous high‐performance liquid chromatography method for the quantitative determination of mold release agent pentaerythritol tetrastearate in polycarbonate matrix has been developed and validated. The analyte calibration curve was linear over range of 0.05–0.2 mg/mL (Coefficient of determination > 0.999), with limit of detection of 0.03 mg/mL. The repeatability of method was satisfactory with relative standard deviation of 1.6%. The obtained recovery was ranging from 100–101%. Detailed high‐resolution mass spectrometric characterization of the principle peak confirmed that all the five components of pentaerythritol tetrastearate elutes as a single peak under the established chromatographic conditions. The new method is reliable and independent of any variation in composition of analyte in the samples compared to pentaerythritol tetrastearate reference standard used for calibration. The new high‐performance liquid chromatography method is robust and easy to implement in quality control laboratories for quantitative estimation of the mold release agent added in commercial polymer.     

Simultaneous determination of senkyunolide I and senkyunolide H in rat plasma by LC‐MS: application to a comparative pharmacokinetic study in normal and migrainous rats after oral administration of Chuanxiong Rhizoma extract

A selective liquid chromatographic–mass spectrometric method has been developed and validated for simultaneous determination of senkyunolide I (SEI) and senkyunolide H (SEH) from Chuanxiong Rhizoma in rat plasma. Plasma samples were extracted by liquid–liquid extraction with ethyl acetate and separated on a Kromasil C₁₈ column (250 × 4.6 mm, 5 µm), with methanol–water (55:45, v/v) as mobile phase. The linear range was 0.05–25 µg/mL for SEI and 0.01–5.0 µg/mL for SEH, with lower limits of quantitation of 0.05 and 0.01 µg/mL, respectively. Intra‐ and inter‐day precision were within 10.0 and 9.8%, and the accuracies (relative errors) were <9.6 and 5.9%, with the mean extraction recoveries 81.0–86.6 and 80.5–85.0% for the two anayltes, respectively. The validated method was successfully applied to a comparative pharmacokinetic study of SEI and SEH in normal and migrainous rats after oral administration of Chuanxiong Rhizoma extract. The results indicated that there were obvious differences between normal and migrainous rats in the pharmacokinetic behavior after oral administration of Chuanxiong Rhizoma extract. The absorption of SEI and SEH were significantly increased in migrainous rats compared with normal rats. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Quality evaluation of moluodan concentrated pill using high‐performance liquid chromatography fingerprinting coupled with chemometrics

In this study, a fast and effective high‐performance liquid chromatography method was developed to obtain a fingerprint chromatogram and quantitative analysis simultaneously of four indexes including gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, albiflorin and paeoniflorin of the traditional Chinese medicine Moluodan Concentrated Pill. The method was performed by using a Waters X‐bridge C₁₈ reversed phase column on an Agilent 1200S high‐performance liquid chromatography system coupled with diode array detection. The mobile phase of the high‐performance liquid chromatography method was composed of 20 mmol/L phosphate solution and acetonitrile with a 1 mL/min eluent velocity, under a detection temperature of 30°C and a UV detection wavelength of 254 nm. After the methodology validation, 16 batches of Moluodan Concentrated Pill were analyzed by this high‐performance liquid chromatography method and both qualitative and quantitative evaluation results were achieved by similarity analysis, principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. The results of these three chemometrics were in good agreement and all indicated that batch 10 and batch 16 showed significant differences with the other 14 batches. This suggested that the developed high‐performance liquid chromatography method could be applied in the quality evaluation of Moluodan Concentrated Pill.     

A highly sensitive method for the determination of 7‐aminonitrazepam,a metabolite of nitrazepam,in human urine using high‐performance electrospray liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

A highly sensitive method has been developed for the determination of urinary 7‐aminonitrazepam (7‐ANZP), the major metabolite of nitrazepam, using high‐performance electrospray liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. The samples were prepared for analysis by adding 7‐aminoclonazepam (7‐ACZP, internal standard), hydrolysis with β‐glucuronidase and liquid–liquid extraction. Mass spectral acquisition was achieved by selectively monitoring the reaction between the two diagnostic transition reactions. Qualitative analysis was based on the retention time, and the quantitation was carried out by comparison with the internal standard. The recoveries of different concentrations of 7‐ANZP from spiked blank samples was 89.0–95.2%, and the relative standard deviation was below 6.4%. The limit of determination in urine was 0.07 ng/mL, and the limit of quantitation was 0.5 ng/mL in the linear range of 1–50 ng/mL. This method possesses the merits of convenient operation, high sensitivity and good repeatability, making it a practical method for analysis of 7‐ANZP in urine. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Determination of 2,6-di-tert-butylphenol in Irganox 1425

An ion suppression reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography method has been developed for the determination of 2,6-di-tert-butylphenol in Irganox 1425. Separation was carried out on a Welch Material Ultimate XB-C₁₈ column (5 μm, 150 mm × 4.6 mm), using methanol–water (0.1 % HClO₄) (75/25, v/v) mixture as the mobile phase in an isocratic elution. Detection was performed by UV absorption at a wavelength of 275 nm, and the limit of detection was 0.2 μg/mL. The method presented excellent repeatability and precision with both intra- and inter-day relative standard deviations (RSDs) of less than 2.0 %, as well as satisfactory accuracy with the recovery of 98.7–102.3 %, and therefore can be applied for the quality control analysis of Irganox 1425 industrial product.     

Approach based on high‐performance liquid chromatography fingerprint coupled with multivariate statistical analysis for the quality evaluation of Gastrodia Rhizoma

Gastrodia Rhizoma is a Traditional Chinese Medicine applied in the treatment of stroke, numbness of limb, headache and dizziness. However, its clinical effect is threatened by sulfur‐fumigation used in the process of storage. This article employs content determination coupled with high‐performance liquid chromatography fingerprint to investigate the effect of sulfur‐fumigation on Gastrodia Rhizoma so as to evaluate the quality of Gastrodia Rhizoma. The result was that most active ingredient in Gastrodia Rhizoma decreased after sulfur‐fumigation and the fingerprints analyzed by mathematical statistics between sulfur‐fumigated Gastrodia Rhizoma and unfumigated Gastrodia Rhizoma have substantial differences, which reveals that sulfur‐fumigation has a significant influence on the quality of Gastrodia Rhizoma. The conclusion of hierarchical clustering analysis, principal component analysis and partial least squares could validate each other, which implies that the method of mathematical statistics applied for assessing the quality of Gastrodia Rhizoma is effective and stable. The method not only affords a viable strategy for distinguishing Gastrodia Rhizoma whether sulfur‐fumigated or not and assessment of the quality of Gastrodia Rhizoma, but also provides a reference for other herbal medicine that suffers from sulfur‐fumigation.     

Quality Evaluation of Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma Based on Combinative Method of HPLC Fingerprint,Quantitative Analysis of Multi-Components and Chemical Pattern Recognition Analysis

A method for the quality evaluation of Atractylodis Macrocephalae Rhizoma (AMR) based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint, HPLC quantification, and chemical pattern recognition analysis was developed and validated. The fingerprint similarity of the 27 batches of AMR samples was 0.887–0.999, which indicates there was very limited variance between the batches. The 27 batches of samples were divided into two categories according to cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA). A total of six differential components of AMR were identified in the partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), among which atractylenolide I, II, III, and atractylone counted 0.003–0.045%, 0.006–0.023%, 0.001–0.058%, and 0.307–1.175%, respectively. The results indicate that the quality evaluation method could be used for quality control and authentication of AMR.     

Determination of lisinopril using anion exchange chromatography with integrated pulsed amperometric detection

A rapid and practical method for direct detection of lisinopril in anion exchange chromatography(AEC) has been developed with integrated pulsed amperometric detection(IPAD).Dionex AS 18(250 mm×2 mm) and AG 18(50 mm×2 mm) columns and 40 mmol/L NaOH solution were used for separation.Multi-step potential waveform parameters were optimized to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio(S/N).Utilizing the optimized waveform,the repeatability(intra-day) precision and intermediate(inter-day) precision were obtained with relative standard deviation(RSD) of 0.74,0.93,respectively.The limit of quantification(LOQ) and limit of detection(LOD) were found to be 0.37,0.12ng/mL,respectively,with the correlation coefficient of 0.9998 over concentration range 0.01-1μg/mL.The present method was successfully applied to the determination of lisinopril in human plasma.The recoveries of plasma sample spiked by 0.2μg/mL,0.8μg/mL lisinopril were 98.31-103.23%with RSD of 1.41%, 0.61%,respectively.     

Simultaneous quantitative analysis of nine constituents in six Chinese medicinal materials from Citrus genus by high‐performance liquid chromatography and high‐resolution mass spectrometry combined with chemometric methods

In this study, we aim to determine the chemical constituents of six Chinese medicinal materials from the Citrus genus using high‐performance liquid chromatography and high‐resolution mass spectrometry. Eight flavonoids and one coumarin were identified and further quantified as marker substances by high‐performance liquid chromatography method. The separation was performed on an Agilent TC‐C₁₈ column with 0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile as the mobile phase under gradient elution. The analytical method was fully validated in terms of linearity, sensitivity, intra‐ and inter‐day precision and repeatability, limit of detection, limit of quantitation, and recovery. It was subsequently applied to evaluate the quality of 103 batches of the Chinese medicinal materials from the Citrus genus. In addition, the principal constituent analysis was used to compare the samples of different species from the Citrus genus leading to successful classification of the samples in accordance with their origins. It was found that the contents of nine constituents varied greatly in different ripening stages and varieties of the samples from the Citrus genus. In addition, neoeriocitrin and 5,7‐dimethoxycoumarin were determined as two unique constituents of ‘Zhiqiao’ and ‘Foshou’, respectively. In conclusion, this study provides a chemical basis for quality control of Chinese medicinal materials from the Citrus genus.