Ultra high performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry for the rapid analysis and global characterization of multiple constituents from Zibu Piyin Recipe

Zibu Piyin Recipe is a traditional Chinese medicine that has been used for the clinical treatment of memory loss in China. However, the chemical components have not been thoroughly studied so far. To quickly identify the chemical components and understand the chemical profiles related to cognition improvement activity, ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry has been applied. The analysis was performed on an Agilent 1290 ultra-high performance liquid chromatography system with a Poroshell 120 EC-C18 column (3.0 × 150 mm, 2.7 μm) using gradient elution. Using the optimized method, 155 chemical components in Zibu Piyin Recipe were tentatively identified. Among them, 112 components in negative ion mode, 73 constituents in positive ion mode, and 30 compounds in both modes could be detected. The major components were identified from Red Ginseng, Dan shen Root, White Paeony Root, liquorice root, Radix Polygalae, Tangerine Red Epicarp, Grassleaf Sweetflag Rhizome, Indian Buead, and lotus seed. These results suggest that the established rapid and robust method will be useful for identifying multiple constituents of traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions. This method could provide helpful chemical information for further in vivo pharmacological mechanism research of Zibu Piyin Recipe and new drug development for cognition improvement.