Rapid discovery and identification of 68 compounds in the active fraction from Xiao-Xu-Ming decoction(XXMD) by HPLC-HRMS and MTSF technique

Xiao-Xu-Ming decoction（XXMD） was a traditional Chinese prescription and first recorded in ＂Bei Ji Qian Jin Yao Fang＂.It has been widely used to treat theoplegia and the sequel of theoplegia in China.In the present work,high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry（HPLC-HRMS） combined with the mass spectral tree similarity filter technique（MTSF）was used to rapidly discover and identify the compounds of the active fraction of XXMD.A total of 3362 compounds were automatically detected by HPLC-HRMS,and final 68 compounds were identified in the active fraction of XXMD.including 14 templated compounds（reference compounds）,50 related compounds fished by MTSF technique,and 4 unrelated compounds identified by manual method.This study successfully applied MTSF technology for the first time to discover and identify the components of Chinese prescription.The results demonstrated that MTSF technique should be useful to the discovery and identification of compounds in Chinese prescription.This study also proved that MTSF can be applied to the targeted phytochemical separation.

Studies of the intestinal absorption of the alkaloids in the Wu-tou decoction combined with different incompatible medicinal herbs in a Caco-2 cell culture system using UPLC-MS/MS

In this study, seven alkaloids were detected in Wu-tou decoction using ultra performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry （UPLC-MSn）. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Fritillariae Cirrhosae Bulbus, Fritillariae Thunbergii Bulbus, Pinelliae Rhizoma in different ratios with Wu-tou decoction （2：1, 1：1, 1：2） by measuring the therapeutic effects in Wu-tou decoction of main seven alkaloids including benzoylaconitine （BA）, benzoylmesaconitine （BM）, benzoylhypaconitine （BH）, hypaconitine （HA）, fuziline （FU）, niaolin （NE） and deoxyaconitine （DA）. The permeability of aconitum alkaloids extract through a Caco-2 cell monolayer was analyzed in the absence and presence of Fritillariae Cirrhosae Bulbus, Fritillariae Thunbergii Bulbus, and Pinelliae Rhizoma, respectively. The results showed that Pinelliae Rhizoma could reduce the absorption of the alkaloids and increase the excretion of the alkaloids, which would attenuate the therapeutic effects of Wu-tou decoction. Therefore, Pinelliae Rhizoma is an incompatible herb of Wu-tou decoction because of the inhibition of the absorption of alkaloids in the intestine. And that Fritillariae Cirrhosae Bulbus and Fritillariae rhunbergii Bulbus showed the effects to improve the permeability of the alkaloids in Wu-tou decoction. These effects of these two herbs were similar, but the former was stronger than the latter, which most likely is due to the fact that the compositions of these two traditional Chinese medicines are similar. The in vitro data suggests that the compounds such as fritillary presented in alkaloids in the formula maybe improve the therapeutic function caused by the increased bioavailability of alkaloids in intestine.