Identification of the Chemical Constituents in Viticis Fructus From Different Regions by UPLC‐QTOF‐MS Combined With Multivariate Statistical Analyses

ABSTRACT Rationale Viticis fructus (VF) is a valuable traditional Chinese herbal medicine with high commercial value. In the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (Ch.P., 2020 edition), the quality of VF is mainly evaluated by its casticin content. However, varying growth and production conditions, such as cultivation environment, origin, and harvesting process, result in highly variable yields, quality, and composition. The aim of this study was to propose a new method for discriminating and quantifying VF from different regions. Methods The chemical constituents of VF from different regions were collected by ultraperformance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (UPLC‐QTOF‐MS) using electrospray ionization (ESI) in both positive and negative ion modes, and the chemical constituents were qualitatively analyzed by Waters UNIFI portal 1.9.4.0 software combined with the self‐developed database of VF. The spectra obtained by Progenesis QI 27.26.1020 and EZinfo 2.0 software were processed by peak standardization, peak extraction, peak alignment, peak matching, and so forth, and the information of compound retention time and mass–charge ratio was obtained. Principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS‐DA) were performed by SIMCA‐P 14.0 software to study the different components of VF from different regions. Results A total of 102 components were identified from VF. The results of PCA and OPLS‐DA showed that there were significant differences in the chemical components of VF from different regions. Twenty‐seven different components were obtained by variable importance for the projection (VIP) > 1 screening, including 12 terpenoids, 7 phenylpropyl compounds, 3 phenolic acids, 2 flavonoids, 2 fatty acids, and 1 steroid. Conclusions By establishing a method of UPLC‐QTOF‐MS combined with multivariate statistical analyses, this study clarifies the difference in chemical components between VF from different regions, which provides a basis for the quality control of VF and provides basic information for revealing the impact of the ecological environment on the accumulation of compounds in VF.