Abstract
Sangju Ganmao tablet (SGT), a well-known Chinese patent medicine used to treat cold symptoms, is made from eight herbal medicines. In this study, an off-line hydrophilic interaction × reversed-phase two-dimensional liquid chromatography (HILIC × RP 2D-LC) method was developed to comprehensively separate the chemical constituents of SGT. Through optimization of the experimental conditions, a total of 465 peaks were finally detected in SGT, and the structures of 54 selected compounds were fully identified or tentatively characterized by quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (qTOF-MS) analysis. The established 2D-LC analysis showed high orthogonality (63.62%) and approximate 11-fold improvement in peak capacity (2399 and 1099, obtained by two calculation methods), in contrast to conventional one-dimensional RPLC separation. The eight component herbs of SGT were also respectively separated by using the 2D-LC system, and we found that a total of 12 peaks detected in SGT were not discovered in any component herbs. These newly generated chemical constituents would benefit better understanding of the compatibility mechanism of the component herbs. The strategy established in this study could be used for systematic chemical comparison of SGT and its component herbs, which contributes to exploration of herbal compatibility mechanism.
Highlights
Most of the Chinese patent medicines are composed of several or even 10s of herbal medicines, and they are very complicated chemical systems containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds (Li et al, 2010)
The separation capacity of reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC) is mainly associated with non-polar selectivity, while hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) is dominated by polar interaction
The two different separation modes were combined to enhance orthogonality and peak capacity in this study, since the chemical constituents of Sangju Ganmao tablet (SGT) have a wide range of polarities
Summary
Most of the Chinese patent medicines are composed of several or even 10s of herbal medicines, and they are very complicated chemical systems containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds (Li et al, 2010). Investigating the different chemical constituents between a Chinese patent medicine and its component herbs may be one of effective approaches to explore its compatibility mechanism. A method based on off-line HILIC × RP 2DLC coupled with qTOF-MS was established to comprehensively profile the chemical constituents of SGT, and the 2D-LC system was systematically optimized to achieve ideal orthogonality and peak capacity. The established method was used to investigate the chemical differences between SGT and its component herbs in order to explore the herbal compatibility mechanism
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