Global Chemome Study by LC Coupled with DAD and ESI–Q–TOF MS of a Composite Traditional Chinese Medicine Qishenyiqi Dropping Pills

Abstract

High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode-array detection and electrospray ionization quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry (ESI–Q–TOF MS) has been used for global chemome analysis of Qishenyiqi dropping pills. Under gradient conditions, two sub-chemomes extracted from Qishenyiqi dropping pills were analyzed on the same C18 reversed-phase column by use of different binary mobile phases. In the chromatogram obtained from sub-chemome I, 19 compounds with strong ultraviolet absorption at 260 nm were detected; 27 compounds with weak ultraviolet absorption at 203 nm were detected in the chromatogram obtained from sub-chemome II. All the compounds were identified by ESI–Q–TOF MS. This study furnished much more important information about the pharmacological activity of Qishenyiqi dropping pills than previous studies and laid a good foundation for further exploration of chemomics.