Insight into the compositional variation of volatile and polar compounds of Radix Bupleuri from different processing technologies by GC-MS and UHPLC-Q-TOF/MS metabolomics.

Introduction: Insight into comparing key active ingredients of Radix Bupleuri (RB) based on different processing technologies is a key step to reveal the material basis of drug efficacy and a challenging task for developing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

Objective: This work aims to establish a comprehensive comparative analysis method of TCM and its processed products, which can be used to analyze the changing trend of active components of RB before and after processing.

Methods: First, RB was processed with rice vinegar, rice wine, and honey. Then, ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) and gas chromatography (GC) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) technology as well as multiple statistical analyses were used to comprehensively evaluate the compositional variation of polar and volatile compounds in RB under different processing processes. Meanwhile, in UHPLC-MS, a sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragment ion spectral and information-dependent acquisition mutual authentication (SIMA) was developed.

Results: A total of 30 polar components and 33 volatile components were identified as chemical markers (mainly type II saikosaponins, terpenes, and fatty acid esters). These may be the material basis for giving unique pharmacological activities to RB and its processed products.

Conclusions: These findings provided a solid foundation for the differentiated clinical application of RB, and the SIMA method held great potential for achieving accurate analysis of TCM processing ingredients.