Application of Matrix-assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry in Analysis of Traditional Chinese Medicine：A Comprehensive Review / 中国实验方剂学杂志

ABSTRACT

Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM）， which owns abundant chemical components and complex action pathways， has been widely recognized in the prevention and treatment of diseases. Some analysis methods have been emerged in order to ensure the quality of TCM and to develop new TCM drugs. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry （MALDI-MS） is a soft ionization mass spectrometric technique with the advantages of high throughput， high sensitivity， low cost and so on. It provides technical support for the molecular level study on TCM. At present， this technique has been used in the field of composition analysis and metabonomics research of TCM， and plays an important role in the identification of Chinese herbal medicines， real-time molecular screening and the construction of metabolic network pathway of active ingredients. Among them， the selection of appropriate matrix and sample preparation technology is the key to ensure the detection effect of MALDI-MS. With the development and optimization of new matrix， the continuous improvement of sample preparation technology and the combination of MALDI-MS with various analytical methods will greatly improve the detection effect. Based on this， this paper discusses the application of MALDI-MS in TCM， including high-throughput detection of active ingredients in TCM， monitoring of the original medicines and their metabolites in vivo， and in situ visualization and characterization of tissue distribution information of active ingredients in TCM. It also discusses the application prospect and existing problems of MALDI-MS in TCM， so as to provide technical support for the identification of active ingredients in TCM， drug utilization and metabolism.