Qualitative and quantitative analysis of Alpiniae Oxyphyllae Fructus by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry.

Alpiniae Oxyphyllae Fructus, as a homology of medicine and food, has been widely used in China for thousands of years. However, the existing qualitative and quantitative methods are difficult to evaluate the quality of Alpiniae Oxyphyllae Fructus samples from multiple sources. In this paper, an high-performance liquid chromatography fingerprint was established for assessing the quality of Alpiniae Oxyphyllae Fructus from different areas. Then, high-performance liquid chromatography was coupled to Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry for characterization of the chemical compositions in Alpiniae Oxyphyllae Fructus. In fingerprint analysis, 54 common peaks were confirmed and six chromatographic peaks of them were identified. The similarity of 14 samples from different areas was between 0.990 and 1.000. Moreover, a total of 30 chemical components were characterized by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry method, six compounds of which were decisively identified. Finally, the content of nootkatone was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. In conclusion, the methods used in this study are efficient for qualitative and quantitative analysis of Alpiniae Oxyphyllae Fructus. Also, these methods can be used to control the quality of other traditional Chinese medicines.