Changes of chemical constituents in Rubiae Radix et Rhizoma before and after carbonized by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS method

Abstract

In order to explore the effect on chemical constituents after carbonized, the changes of chemical constituents in raw and carbonized Rubiae Radix et Rhizoma were analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS. The research also used principal component analysis(PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) for data statistics to find out the main differences on components before and after carbonized. The accurate m/z values of Q-TOF-MS and Q-TOF-MS-MS fragments were applied to identify the structures. The results showed that 6 more discrepant constituents were existed between raw and carbonized Rubiae Radix et Rhizoma. Three constituents were selected as the main discrepant components according to the peak area (276 nm) and identified, as lucidin, xanthopurpurin and 1,3,6-trihydroxy-2-methylanthraquinone. After carbonized, contents of xanthopurpurin and 1,3,6-trihydroxy-2-methylanthraquinone were observably increasing, while lucidin was obviously decreasing. They could be used as the chemical markers for the differentiation between raw and carbonized Rubiae Radix et Rhizoma. The results of this experiment played an important role in the study of processing principle of carbonized Rubiae Radix et Rhizoma. It also provided important evidences for the interpretation of effective material based on carbonized Rubiae Radix et Rhizoma.