Method development and application for multi-phenolic components in the processing of Dendrobium officinale using UPLC coupled with mass spectrometry and chemometric analysis

Dendrobium officinale (DO) is a perennial herb that has been utilized medicinal and edible purposes for thousands of years, often transforming into 'Fengdou' after drying. Despite its long-standing use, the specific phenolic components present during DO processing have remained elusive. This study established a method for the simultaneous and accurate quantification of 27 phenolic compounds during DO processing employing ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), with 8 reference-free components optimized through an online strategy. Furthermore, correlation analysis and molecular docking were conducted to further screened and validated 6 phenolics with α-glucosidase inhibitory activity, including vanillin, p-coumaric acid, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, resveratrol, coniferyl alcohol, and dihydropinosylvin. Notably, resveratrol exhibited the lowest binding energy at −7.7 kcal/mol among these compounds. These findings significantly contribute to the development of the deep-processing techniques for DO and the hypoglycaemic functional food industry by providing data that support the elucidation of medicinal substances in DO.