Rapid identification and quantitative determination of chemical compositions in Buyang Huanwu decoction based on HPLC-Q-Exactive mass spectrometry

To establish an analytical method for rapid identification of chemical compositions and quantitative determination of major compositions in Buyang Huanwu decoction (BYHWD) based on high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole orbitrap mass spectrometry (HPLC-Q-Exactive MS) and high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV).The mass spectrometry information was collected in Full MS/dd-MS 2 negative ion mode with HPLC-Q-Exactive MS system; the chemical compositions of BYHWD were subsequently annotated with Compound Discoverer 3.0 software and a self-built in-house compound library. Eight major compositions (paeoniflorin, gallic acid, hydroxysafflor yellow A, ferulic acid, calycosin-7-glucoside, ononin, calycosin, formononetin) were picked out and their contents were quantitatively determined with HPLC-UV analysis.A total of 178 compounds in BYHWD were tentatively identified. The results of HPLC-UV quantitative analysis showed that 8 compositions had a good linear relationship in their respective concentration range ( R2≥0.9990), the relative standard deviations (RSD) of precision and stability were all less than 15%, and the recovery rate RSD was between 1.6% and 2.4%.The method established in this study can realize the rapid identification and accurate quantification of the major compositions in BYHWD. Paeoniflorin, hydroxysafflor yellow A and gallic acid may be used as quality control markers.