ABSTRACT
Objective: The chemical finger printing-based methods for evaluating TCMs quality can report partial of TCMs quality without linking to effective constituents. In this study, a mathematical model was established for the quality evaluation of total saponins of Panax japonicus (TSPJ), a folk medicine in China and Japan for treating diseases, through coupling the dynamic changes of chemical constitutions with corresponding activities. Methods: High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprints were applied to establish the chromatographic database of TSPJ. The associated hypolipidemic activity database was determined by TG assay using HepG2 cell model. Correlation analyses of two databases were performed by partial least squares (PLS) for calculating regression coefficients, and the interval value of YZL value (the ratio of positive and negative peak-to-peak area coefficient) closely related to hypolipidemic activity was refined by the formula of Norminv function to value the quality of TSPJ. Results: In this study, the chromatographic data of 16 common peaks were obtained from 20 batches of TSPJ. After the estimate by this mathematical evaluation model, seven peaks were positively correlated with hypolipidemic activity, and nine peaks were negatively correlated with hypolipidemic activity. When the YZL value was less than 0.7861, the quality of sample was inferior, while YZL value was more than 6.6992, and the quality of samples was superior. The quality of another ten batches of TSPJ was further assessed to verify this method. Conclusion: These results indicated that the established model could be usefully applied to evaluate the quality of TSPJ in the hypolipidemic activity.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To establish an analytical method of ultra performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap HRMS) for identification and quantitation of the multi-constituents of Danshen-chuanxiongqin injection. METHODS: The method of UHPLC-HRMS was developed to identify the complex chemical composition and full ms scan mode was used to determine the main active ingredients precisely, then the means of principal component analysis (PCA) was used to comprehensively assess the quality of Danshen-chuanxiongqin injection. RESULTS: A total of 23 chemical constituents were identified in Danshen-chuanxiongqin injection, 14 of which were unambiguously identified by comparing with chemical standards, and seven major compounds, ligustrazine, danshensu, salvianolic acid A, succinic acid, rosmarinic acid, protocatechuic aldehyde, caffeic acid, in Danshen-chuanxiongqin Injection were determined accurately. The analysis by multivariate data processing software SIMCA 14.0 indicated that the quality of most batches of samples were stable except ligustrazine, danshensu, and salvianolic acid A which were a bit unstable in some individual batches, and it was essential to monitor the content of salvianolic acid A to control the drug quality. CONCLUSION: The established HPLC-TOF-MS/MS method has the properties of rapid identification, high specificity, simpliness, and feasibility, which can be used as a better means for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of danshen-chuanxiongqin injection. Moreover, it lays the ground for quality control of the drug and provides data reference for the rational use in clinic.