Rapid identification of chemical constituents of Chaihu‐jia‐Longgu‐Muli decoction based on ultra‐performance liquid chromatography‐quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry coupled with the UNIFI platform

Abstract Chaihu‐jia Longgu‐Muli decoction (CLMD) is a traditional Chinese medicine formula, and it has been used for more than a thousand years to treat mental and nervous system diseases. However, the active constitutions of the CLMD are unclear. Accordingly, an integrated analysis based on the ultra‐performance liquid chromatography‐quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry method combined with the UNIFI platform was used to clarify the chemical composition of the CLMD. As a result, 102 compounds including 38 saponins, 32 flavonoids, 12 polyphenols, nine anthraquinones, and 11 others were identified or tentatively presumed. Among them, 19 compounds were confirmed unambiguously with standards. Moreover, the characteristic fragmentations and fragmentation patterns of different compounds in CLMD were summarized, and each compound was classified as an individual herb. It was demonstrated that this method is rapid and accurate and could provide a strategy for the qualitative analysis of the chemical constituents of CLMD, and these results will provide experimental evidence for the subsequent studies on the pharmacodynamic material basis and quality control of CLMD.