Chemical Characterization of Phenolic Compounds in Erigeron Injection by Rapid-Resolution LC Coupled with Multi-Stage and Quadrupole-TOF-MS

Rapid-resolution liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ion trap multistage mass spectrometry (ESI-MS ⁿ ) and electrospray quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI-Q-TOF) has been utilized to separate and characterize the phenolic components in Erigeron injections. After extensive separation on the column, each peaks’ potential structures were obtained based on their accurate mass supplied by ESI-Q-TOF and chemical database retrieval, and confirmed by ESI-MS ⁿ . A total of 44 compounds were identified or tentatively characterized and fifteen of them reported for the first time. In addition, the developed method was applied to monitor the elimination of phenolic compounds in rats after intravenous administration of 4 mL kg^?1 Erigeron injection. The caffeoylquinic acids and flavonoids of the Erigeron injection were quickly degraded and most of them reached the low limit of detection (SNR < 3) at 2 h post-injection.