Ultra‐performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry combined with automated MetaboLynx analysis approach to screen the bioactive components and their metabolites in Wen‐Xin‐Formula

Wen‐Xin‐Formula (WXF), a famous traditional prescription, has been widely used to treat myocardial ischemia syndrome for thousands of years. However, the constituents absorbed into blood after oral administration of WXF remain unknown. Here, an integrative ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization/quadrupole‐time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (UPLC‐ESI‐Q‐TOF‐MS) combined with the MetaboLynx approach was established to investigate the absorbed constituents in rats after oral administration of WXF. A hyphenated electrospray ionization and quadrupole‐time‐of‐flight analyzer was used for the determination of accurate mass of the molecule and fragment ions. With this rapid and automated analysis method, a total of 32 peaks were tentatively characterized in vivo based on MS and MS/MS data and comparison with available databasess, 26 of which were parent components and six metabolites. These components mainly were ginsenosides, paeoniflorin, galloyl glucose, berberis alkaloids, phenolic, phenolic glycosides and unsaturated fatty acids, glucuronide products of original berberis alkaloids. The present study demonstrates that integrative UPLC‐ESI‐Q‐TOF‐MS technique and MetaboLynx data processing method were successfully applied for the rapid discovery of potentially bioactive components and metabolites from WXF, and proved that the established method could help to explore the effective substances for further research into WXF. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.