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“Force iteration molecular designing” strategy for the systematic characterization and discovery of new protostane triterpenoids from Alisma Rhizoma by UHPLC/LTQ-Orbitrap-MS

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Abstract

Comprehensive analysis and identification of chemical components are of great significance for evaluating the efficacy and safety of herbal medicines, as well as for drug exploitation and development. Here we developed a “force iteration molecular designing” strategy, by combing a database-based in-house software for a precursor ion list (PIL) and PIL-triggered collision-induced dissociation-MS2 and high-energy C-trap dissociation-MS2 (PIL-CID/MS2-HCD/MS2) on an LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometer, aiming for the systematic characterization and discovery of new protostane triterpenoids (PTs) from Alisma Rhizoma (AR). AR was a well-known herbal remedy widely used for diarrhea, but its systematic characterization and comparison between two botanical origins have not been reported. Firstly, in-house software was developed based on force iteration, to generate a PIL that contains 483 accurate precursor ions. Secondly, to facilitate the acquisition of rich fragments and diagnostic ions sufficient for the structural elucidation of different types of PTs, a hybrid data acquisition method, namely PIL-CID/MS2-HCD/MS2, was generated. Thirdly, a total of 473 PTs were rapidly characterized from two botanical origins of AR according to an established four-step interpretation method, and the common constituents were 277 with ratio 70% (277/395) and 78% (277/355) in the rhizome of Alisma plantago-aquatica and A. orientale, respectively. Finally, two new PTs were isolated and unambiguously identified by NMR verifying the feasibility of this combined data acquisition strategy. This integrated strategy could improve the efficiency in the detection of new compounds in a single run and is practical to comprehensively characterize the complex components in herbal medicines.

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Funding

This research was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFC1711000) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81530095).

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  1. Jianqing Zhang and Qinghao Jin contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Haike Road #501, Shanghai, 201203, China

    Jianqing Zhang, Qinghao Jin, Wenyong Wu, Xu Jin, Yaling An, Chen Liu, Wenlong Wei, Zhenwei Li, Changliang Yao, Shuai Yao, Yong Huang, Hua Qu, Wanying Wu & De-an Guo

  2. School of Pharmacy, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Jianqing Zhang & De-an Guo

  3. Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100193, China

    Jingyuan Song

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Zhang, J., Jin, Q., Wu, W. et al. “Force iteration molecular designing” strategy for the systematic characterization and discovery of new protostane triterpenoids from Alisma Rhizoma by UHPLC/LTQ-Orbitrap-MS. Anal Bioanal Chem 413, 1749–1764 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-020-03145-y

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