Research and Development Division, School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
Analyst. 2014 Jan 21;139(2):505-16. doi: 10.1039/c3an01561k.
Over recent decades sulfur fumigation has been becoming abused in processing some freshly harvested Chinese medicinal herbs, although it is questioned whether sulfur fumigation can result in changes in efficacy and safety of the herbs. One of the herbs commonly processed by sulfur fumigation is Codonopsis Radix (Dangshen). A report showed that lobetyolin content in sulfur-fumigated Dangshen was lower than in air-dried Dangshen. Whereas there is no investigation designed to compare the chemical profiles of the sulfur-fumigated Dangshen and the air-dried Dangshen. In the present study, a rapid and versatile ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with ultra-high resolution quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC UHD Q-TOF MS/MS) method was developed for comprehensive analysis of the chemical profiles of sulfur-fumigated and air-dried Dangshen samples. Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) demonstrated that there were significant chemical differences between sulfur-fumigated and air-dried Dangshen samples. Among the changed components, 57 compounds were identified, in which 15 sulfur-containing compounds were detected only in sulfur-fumigated samples. The established methods were successfully applied to discriminate sulfur-fumigated Dangshen among commercial samples. Whether the chemical changes caused by sulfur fumigation affect the clinical efficacy and safety of Dangshen needs to be further investigated.
近几十年来，硫磺熏蒸已被滥用于加工一些新收获的中药材，尽管人们质疑硫磺熏蒸是否会导致中药材功效和安全性发生变化。经过硫磺熏蒸加工的中药材之一是党参（Dangshen）。有报道称，硫磺熏蒸党参中的 lobetyolin 含量低于自然干燥党参。然而，目前还没有设计专门的研究来比较硫磺熏蒸党参和自然干燥党参的化学成分。在本研究中，开发了一种快速且通用的超高效液相色谱-超高分辨率四极杆飞行时间质谱联用（UHPLC UHD Q-TOF MS/MS）方法，用于全面分析硫磺熏蒸和自然干燥党参样品的化学成分。主成分分析（PCA）和偏最小二乘判别分析（PLS-DA）表明，硫磺熏蒸和自然干燥党参样品之间存在显著的化学成分差异。在变化的成分中，鉴定出 57 种化合物，其中 15 种含硫化合物仅在硫磺熏蒸样品中检测到。所建立的方法成功应用于鉴别商业样品中的硫磺熏蒸党参。硫磺熏蒸引起的化学成分变化是否会影响党参的临床疗效和安全性，需要进一步研究。
