A comprehensive method for quality evaluation of Tibetan medicine Synotis solidaginea by integrating UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap MS chemical profiling and UHPLC-DAD multi-components quantification

Abstract

Synotis solidaginea Hand.-Mazz. (SSD) is a commonly used Tibetan medicinal herb with a long history of therapeutic use and has good medicinal value and development and utilization prospects. This study aimed to establish and validate a comprehensive strategy integrating UHPLC-Q Exactive Orbitrap HRMS chemical profiling and UHPLC-DAD multi-components quantification for the holistic quality evaluation of SSD. Using UHPLC-Q Exactive Orbitrap HRMS, a total of 58 components in SSD including flavonoids, organic acids, terpenoids, coumarin, and alkaloids were identified or tentatively characterized by authentic reference standards and accurate masses and characteristic fragment ions. The proportion of flavonoids and organic acids were the most in SSD. Subsequently, 7 characteristic components in SSD were quantified by a newly established UHPLC-DAD method that was validated in terms of linearity and ranges, LOD and LOQ, precision, repeatability, stability, and accuracy. Finally, the method was successfully used for the quality evaluation of 8 batches of SSD collected from 5 production areas in China. ANOVA and post hoc Tukey test are used to evaluate the differences in component content in SSD from different production areas. There are significant differences in the content of SSD from different regions (P < 0.05), which may be related to the climate, altitude, and other natural environments of the regions. This work laid a valuable foundation for further development and comprehensive quality control of SSD.