Chemical analysis of Chrysosplenium from different species by UPLC-Q exactive orbitrap HRMS and HPLC-DAD

Chrysosplenium is the main component of a variety of Tibetan prescription preparations. Nevertheless, there are few chemical reports for different species of Chrysosplenium, which should be further explored. To this end, ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/electrostatic field orbitrap high resolution mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q Exactive Orbitrap HRMS) and high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) were first integrated to qualitatively analyse the chemical characteristics of Chrysosplenium nudicaule, Chrysosplenium carnosum, Chrysosplenium sikangense, Chrysosplenium griffithii, Chrysosplenium absconditicapsulum, Chrysosplenium forrestii and Chrysosplenium axillare. As a result, a total of 40 compounds were identified or tentatively identified from these 7 species of Chrysosplenium, including 21 flavonoids, 3 triterpenoids and a variety of alkaloids, organic acids and anthraquinones, etc. Among them, 6 compounds were detected for the first time, and 8 compounds are common components in all 7 species of Chrysosplenium. In the specific chromatogram, 4 characteristic peaks, namely Riboflavin, 5,4'-dihydroxy-3,6,3'-trimethoxyflavin-7-O-β-D-glucoside, 5,7,3'-trihydroxy-6,4',5'-trimethoxyflavone and Chrysosplenetin, were selected to evaluate the similarities of 17 batches of Chrysosplenium samples, which ranged from 0.770 to 0.994. The established method is simple, feasible and accurate, and was proven to be suitable for characterizing the chemical compositions of Chrysosplenium from different species and evaluating their similarities by specific chromatogram analysis to clarify the rationality of using Chrysosplenium from different species in clinical medication, which provides experimental data for further quality evaluation of Chrysosplenium.