UHPLC-MS/MS quantification combined with chemometrics for the comparative analysis of different batches of raw and wine-processed Dipsacus asper.

A rapid and sensitive ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry approach was established for the simultaneous determination of 4-caffeoylquinic acid, loganic acid, chlorogenic acid, loganin, 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, dipsacoside B, asperosaponin VI, and sweroside in raw and wine-processed Dipsacus asper. Chloramphenicol and glycyrrhetinic acid were employed as internal standards. The proposed approach was fully validated in terms of linearity, sensitivity, precision, repeatability as well as recovery. Intra- and interassay variability for all analytes were 2.8-4.9 and 1.7-4.8%, respectively. The standard addition method determined recovery rates for each analytes (96.8-104.6%). In addition, the developed approach was applied to 20 batches of raw and wine-processed samples of Dipsacus asper. Principle component analysis and partial least squares-discriminate analysis revealed a clear separation between the raw group and wine-processed group. After wine-processing, the contents of loganic acid, chlorogenic acid, dipsacoside B, and asperosaponin VI were upregulated, while the contents of 3,5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 4-caffeoylquinic acid, loganin, and sweroside were downregulated. Our results demonstrated that ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry quantification combined with chemometrics is a viable method for quality evaluation of the raw Dipsacus asper and its wine-processed products.