Holistic quality evaluation of Callicarpae Formosanae Folium by multi-chromatography-based qualitative and quantitative analysis of polysaccharides and small molecules

Callicarpae Formosanae Folium (CFF), derived from the leaves of Callicarpa formosana Rolfe, is a common Chinese medicinal herb used for the treatment of hematemesis. Phytochemical studies found that phenylpropanoids, flavonoids, terpenoids and polysaccharides were the main ingredients of CFF. However, there is limited scientific information concerning holistic quality method and quality consistency evaluation of CFF. In this study, a strategy integrating HPGPC-ELSD, HPLC-PDA, UV-VIS and UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS was firstly developed to simultaneously qualify and quantify polysaccharides, as well as representative small molecules in CFF. HPGPC-ELSD was applied to characterize the molecular weight distribution of polysaccharides, HPLC-PDA was developed to qualitatively and quantitatively determine monosaccharides. UV-VIS was used to determine the total polysaccharides content, and UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS was established to characterize the small molecules. The quality consistency of commercial CFF (CM-CFF) was also evaluated. It was shown that the relative molecular weights, the compositional monosaccharides and small molecules composition in CM-CFF and self-collected CFF (SC-CFF) samples were similar. A total of 32 small molecules including 6 phenylpropanoids, 7 flavonoids and 19 terpenoids were characterized in CFF. However, the variation was observed in the content of polysaccharides, luteolin, ursolic acid, as well as total contents of terponoids in CM-CFF samples, which implied that the holistic quality of CM-CFF was inconsistent. The results suggested that the proposed evaluation strategy could be applied as a potential approach for the quality control of CFF. And the quality of CM-CFF should be improved by Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) base and standard processing method.