RAPID SEPARATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF MULTIPLE CONSTITUENTS IN VINE TEA BY UFLC SYSTEM COUPLED WITH Q-TOF-MS/MS

Abstract

Author(s): Wang Xi-long, Zhou Ye, Wang Ping, Xiao Wei-zhen, Wang Jian-zhuang, Lv Hua-chong, Liu Hui-qiong*

Vine Tea (VT), as a well-known Chinese traditional liana medicine and functional tea, is a special plant which is rich in flavonoids; even though some ingredients were isolated via the conventional approach. Nevertheless, there have been no reports about chemical profile through LC-Q-TOF-MS/MS. In this study, an method has been established to rapid separation and structural identification the chemical constituents of Vine Tea for the first time by ultra-fast liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectra (UFLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS). Based on the accurate mass, retention time and MS spectra, 29 compounds in crude extract, mainly belonging to flavonoids and organic acids, were explicitly identified or tentatively characterized by comparing with reference standards or literatures. The possible fragmentation pathways were proposed and fragmentation rules of the major types of compounds were concluded. The results indicated that UFLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS based chemical profiling is a highly efficient approach for the original discrimination of Vine Tea as well as other traditional Chinese medicines.