Abstract
BackgroundOver recent decades, sulfur fumigation is becoming abused in processing some freshly harvested herbs used as both medicine and food, although it has been questioned whether sulfur fumigation will change the efficacy and safety of the herbs. One of the herbs commonly processed by sulfur fumigation is Platycodonis Radix (Jiegeng in Chinese). Glycosides are the main bioactive components of Jiegeng. Up to the present, no study has been carried out to evaluate the impact of sulfur fumigation on glycoside profile of Jiegeng.MethodsA rapid and versatile ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with ultra-high resolution quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC UHD Q-TOF MS/MS) method was developed for comprehensive analysis of the glycoside profiles of sulfur-fumigated and air-dried Jiegeng samples.ResultsTwenty-three glycosides were detected in air-dried and sulfur-fumigated Jiegeng samples. After sulfur fumigation, the peak heights of eight glycosides, namely platycogenin A, platycodin D, platycodin D2, platycodin D3, polygalacin D, polygalacin D2, deapio-platycodin D and 3″-O-acetylplatycodin D2, remarkably decreased; while peak heights of five glycosides, namely syringin, lobetyolin, platycoside E, deapio-platycodin D2 and deapio-platycoside E, slightly increased; in addition, peaks of ten glycosides, platycodin A, platycodin C, platycodin V, platycoside C, 16-oxoplatycodin D, 2″-O-acetylpolygalacin D, 2″-O-acetylpolygalacin D2, 3″-O-acetylpolygalacin D, 3″-O-acetylpolygalacin D2, and platycogenic acid B, disappeared.ConclusionSulfur fumigation caused significant changes of glycoside components of Jiegeng. Further investigations are warranted to explore how these chemical changes occurred and whether these changes would affect the efficacy and safety of Jiegeng.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13020-016-0101-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Over recent decades, sulfur fumigation is becoming abused in processing some freshly harvested herbs used as both medicine and food, it has been questioned whether sulfur fumigation will change the efficacy and safety of the herbs
We compared the compositions of glycosides in sulfur-fumigated and air-dried Jiegeng samples using a newly developed ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with ultra-high resolution quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC UHD Q-TOF MS/MS) method
Comparison of the chemical profiles of sulfur‐fumigated and air‐dried Jiegeng samples To compare the chemical compositions of sulfur-fumigated and air-dried Jiegeng samples, chemical profiling was conducted by UHPLC UHD Q-TOF MS in both positive and negative ion modes
Summary
Sulfur fumigation is becoming abused in processing some freshly harvested herbs used as both medicine and food, it has been questioned whether sulfur fumigation will change the efficacy and safety of the herbs. One of the herbs commonly processed by sulfur fumigation is Platycodonis Radix (Jiegeng in Chinese). No study has been carried out to evaluate the impact of sulfur fumigation on glycoside profile of Jiegeng. Platycodonis Radix (the dried root of Platycodon grandiflorum, Jiegeng in Chinese), a Chinese medicinal herb traditionally used for dissipating phlegm, is commonly processed by sulfur fumigation. To the best of our knowledge, no study has been conducted to evaluate the influence of sulfur fumigation on the chemical constituents of Jiegeng. We compared the compositions of glycosides in sulfur-fumigated and air-dried Jiegeng samples using a newly developed ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with ultra-high resolution quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC UHD Q-TOF MS/MS) method. The UHPLC UHD Q-TOF MS/MS offered superior chromatographic resolution with exact mass measurements for both MS and MS/MS modes
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