| Summary: | <i>Gentiana radix</i> is used in traditional Chinese medicine and has functions of clearing heat and drying dampness, as well as purging liver and gallbladder fire. A highly sensitive and effective strategy for rapid screening and identification of target constituents has been developed by using ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with linear ion trap-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (UHPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap) in crude and wine-processed <i>Gentiana radix</i>. Based on the accurate mass measurement (<5 ppm), retention times, and MS fragmentation ions, 52 constituents were unambiguously or tentatively characterized from <i>Gentiana radix</i>, including 21 iridoids, 11 flavonoids, 19 xanthones, and a triterpenoid. This study demonstrated that the established method could be a rapid, effective analytical tool for screening and characterization of compounds in the complex systems of <i>Gentiana radix</i>. By comparing the structure and peak areas of chemical constituents in crude and wine-processed <i>Gentiana radix</i>, we found that some compounds in crude and wine-processed <i>Gentiana radix</i> were significantly different.
|
|---|