ABSTRACT
Objective: The fingerprint of Bupleurum chinense roots was developed with ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry(UPLC/Q-TOF-MS),the main chromatographic peaks were preliminary identified,and combined with principal component analysis(PCA) pattern recognition method to evaluate the quality of this herb from different origins. Method: The chromatographic separation was performed on a ZORBAX Eclipse Plus C18 column(2.1 mm×100 mm,1.8 μm) with a gradient elution of acetonitrile-0.1%formic acid aqueous solution.The mass spectrometer equipped with electrospray ionization(ESI) was used as detector and operated under the negative ion mode.Taking mass spectrometry data processing software of PeakView 1.2 and metabolomics analysis software of MarkerView 1.2.1,the different origins of B. chinense roots were analyzed by PCA. Result: The fingerprint of B. chinense roots was established within 35 min by UPLC/Q-TOF-MS.The samples from different origins were apparently classified by PCA.Eight compounds with significant differences were screened out,and the structures of three of them were identified as 3″-O-acetyl saikosaponin A,3″-O-acetyl saikosaponin D,6″-O-acetyl saikosaponin D. Conclusion: UPLC/Q-TOF-MS can be used for the rapid identification of fingerprint of B. chinense roots from different origins.IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 and PCA can comprehensively distinguish the differences of chemical components in B. chinense roots from different origins and can be used to evaluate the quality of this herb.