Qualitative and quantitative analyses of aconite alkaloids in Aconiti kusnezoffii Radix, and NO inhibitory activity evaluation of the alkaloid extracts

Qin-Yu Li,Chun-Hong Zhang,Wen-Shuo Wang,Xue Gong,Na Zhang,Jia-Xin Zhu,Bo Wu

doi:10.1590/fst.28521

Abstract

Aconiti kusnezoffii Radix (Caowu), a traditional Chinese medicine and Mongolian medicine, has been commonly used owing to its analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. Here, we performed a qualitative analysis of aconite alkaloids (AAs) in raw and processed Aconiti kusnezoffii Radix by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry. Furthermore, we quantified benzoylaconine, benzoylmesaconine, benzoylhypaconine, aconitine, mesaconitine, and hypaconitine in raw and processed Aconiti kusnezoffii Radix using a HPLC system coupled with a diode array detector. The analysis of AA fragmentation patterns in positive electrospray ionization mode revealed 155 AAs, including 6 with unambiguous identities, 109 with putative assignments, and 40 unknown compounds. Additionally, lipopolysaccharide-treated RAW264.7 macrophages were used to evaluate the anti-inflammatory properties of the alkaloid extracts of Aconiti kusnezoffii Radix. Importantly, alkaloid extracts of Aconiti kusnezoffii Radix at three different concentrations exhibited protective effect against lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation. Thus, the proposed method can be used not only for the qualitative and quantitative analyses of Aconiti kusnezoffii Radix, but also for evaluating other Aconitum spp. Our study lays a foundation for the clinical application of poisonous Aconitum.

Highlights

Aconiti kusnezoffii Radix is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) (National Pharmacopoeia Committee, 2015) and Mongolian medicine (Ao & Buhe, 2013)
The normalized collision energy (NCE) mode was chosen as there is no need to optimize the collision energy
155 peaks were detected within 40 min in the mass spectrum of the 70% methanol extract of raw and processed Aconiti kusnezoffii Radix (Figure 2A and 2B) in the positive ion mode

Summary

Introduction

Aconiti kusnezoffii Radix is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) (commonly called “Caowu”) (National Pharmacopoeia Committee, 2015) and Mongolian medicine (commonly called “Benga”) (Ao & Buhe, 2013). In both traditional medicinal systems, Aconiti kusnezoffii Radix is commonly used owing to its analgesic (Liu et al, 2013) and anti-inflammatory effects(Li et al, 2019). The effective therapeutic doses of AAs are close to their toxic doses (Wang et al, 2018b) During processing, these alkaloids retain their analgesic properties, their toxicity is reduced by approximately 100-fold (Zhang et al, 2015; Zhi et al, 2020). LC-MS/MS can effectively separate and help identify the chemical components of TCM (Pang et al, 2016; Song et al, 2015)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion