Quantitative determination of the chemical profile of the plant material "Qiang-huo" by LC-ESI-MS-MS

The rhizomes of Notopterygium incisum Ting. ex H. T. Chang and N. forbesii Boiss. are recorded in the pharmacopoeia of the People's Republic of China under the same name "Qiang-huo". Valid quality control of Qiang-huo is desirable due to the fact that the wild natural sources of Qiang-huo have almost been exhausted and large regulated cultivation is developing. in the present paper, HPLC fingerprinting was developed to identify and distinguish both species in detail. The unique properties of the HPLC fingerprint were validated by analyzing 15 batches of N. incisum and 11 batches of N. forbesii. A standardized procedure involving liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-multiple stage mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MSn) was developed to identify the fingerprint components, and a total of eight characteristic peaks were unequivocally identified. An average chromatogram from 15 batches of N. incisum from different geographic sources, considered to be the original and genuine herbal medicine, was first established as the standard fingerprint. The chemical profiles of 11 batches of N. forbesii samples were found to be variable. The HPLC method can differentiate N. incisum from N. forbesii by either the marker compounds notoptol (4) and p-hydroxypenethylanisate (8) or the amounts of nodakenin (1), notopterol (5), and 6'-O-trons-feruloylnodakenin (7). The HPLC fingerprint analysis is specific and may serve for quality identification and comprehensive evaluation of Qiang-huo.