Department of Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences, Jiujiang University, Jiujiang 332005, People's Republic of China.
J Chromatogr Sci. 2020 Apr 25;58(5):454-463. doi: 10.1093/chromsci/bmaa006.
The dried root of Asparagus cochinchinensis (RAC) has been used as an important traditional Chinese medicine for a long time in China. Steroidal saponins (SSs) are considered to be the main active ingredients of this herb. However, the isolation and structural determination of SSs from RAC are time-consuming and laborious. For this reason, the development of new methods for the separation and characterization of SSs is highly desirable. In this study, a new high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS) method with precursor ions and the corresponding fragment ions was developed for the identification of SSs in RAC. Finally, 30 SSs have been detected and identified, including 17 potential new compounds. This is the first systematic study of SSs in RAC by HPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS method.
中国长期以来一直将土茯苓（RAC）的干根用作一种重要的传统中药。甾体皂苷（SSs）被认为是这种草药的主要活性成分。然而，从 RAC 中分离和确定 SSs 的结构既耗时又费力。出于这个原因，非常需要开发用于分离和表征 SSs 的新方法。在这项研究中，开发了一种新的高效液相色谱-电喷雾电离-四极杆飞行时间质谱联用（HPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS）方法，具有前体离子和相应的碎片离子，用于鉴定 RAC 中的 SSs。最后，检测和鉴定了 30 种 SSs，其中包括 17 种潜在的新化合物。这是通过 HPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS 方法对 RAC 中 SSs 的首次系统研究。
