Comparative analysis of chemical components in fruits of Chebulae Fructus and its pulp based on chromatographic technology coupled with multivariate chemometric methods

Abstract

Chebulae Fructus, was extensively used as a food supplement and medicinal herb, which contained two medicinal forms corresponding to the mature fruit of Chebulae Fructus (CF) and CF pulp. They were widely used in the Chinese clinical medicine and it played a significant role in the Mongolian and Tibetan medicine for the treatment of sore throat, asthma, diarrhea and other diseases. Both of them were recorded in the 2020 Edition (Volume I) of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. However, the chemical components of CF and CF pulp have not been holistically explored, which seriously hindered its quality evaluation. This study investigated the overall chemical profile of the CF and CF pulp using ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS) and ultra high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). Sixty-four chemical components were tentatively identified, and 13 components were quantified in Chebulae Fructus. Furthermore, multivariate chemometric methods were applied to compare the differences among CF samples, and all samples were classified by orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) based on the 13 quantified compounds. The results showed that CF and CF pulp were clustered in two different areas. Ellagic acid, chebulagic acid, chebulinic acid, corilagin and pentagalloyl glucose were selected as the significant constituents to different of CF and CF pulp. LC-MS coupled with chemometrics strategy analysis could comprehensively evaluate the holistic quality of CF, which provided a necessary information for the rational development and utilization of CF and CF pulp resource.