Chemical Profiling of Anti-Inflammatory Constituents for Hongteng Baijiang Decoction Using Comprehensive...

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Pharmacology
• Traditional Chinese Medicine

Background:

• Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) formulas like Hongteng Baijiang decoction (HBD) possess complex chemical compositions.
• Identifying bioactive components and understanding their pharmacological activities is crucial for TCM quality control and drug development.
• Existing separation techniques may not fully resolve the intricate mixtures found in TCM.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography (CCC×HPLC) method for the chemical profiling of HBD.
• To identify bioactive components, particularly those with anti-inflammatory activities, within HBD.
• To evaluate the efficacy of CCC×HPLC in separating and identifying compounds from complex herbal matrices.

Main Methods:

• Investigated comprehensive two-dimensional reverse phase countercurrent chromatography (CCC) coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
• Evaluated the anti-inflammatory activity of different HBD extracts.
• Utilized liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS) for component identification based on CCC×HPLC separation.

Main Results:

• Achieved a total peak capacity of approximately 782 peaks with high orthogonality (90.16% separation space occupancy) using CCC×HPLC.
• Identified 207 chemical components in the ethyl acetate extract of HBD, with 70 additional compounds identified compared to 1D-HPLC.
• Terpenoids were identified as the major class of bioactive components responsible for the anti-inflammatory activity of HBD.

Conclusions:

• Comprehensive two-dimensional chromatography (CCC×HPLC) is a powerful and promising technique for the separation and chemical profiling of complex TCM formulas.
• The developed method significantly enhanced the identification of chemical constituents in HBD, aiding in understanding its therapeutic potential.
• Terpenoids are key contributors to the anti-inflammatory properties of Hongteng Baijiang decoction.