Rapid screening and identification of chemical constituents from ophiopogon japonicus by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Abstract

Ophiopogon japonicus (Thunb.) Ker-Gawl (Liliaceae), which is named as "Maidong" in China, is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine for treating fever, cough, inflammation, epistaxis, constipation, respiratory disease and gastrointestinal disorders. However, the systematic analysis of chemical constituents of O. japonicus has not been well established because of the complexity and trace. In this paper, an effective and reliable high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry method was successfully developed to separate and identify the chemical constituents from O. japonicus. As a result, a total of 30 compounds including steroidal saponins, homoisoflavonoids, allylbenzene, cholest and cryptomeridiol were screened or tentatively identified. Of them, three new steroidal saponins were found and tentatively characterized in O. japonicus. This study provides a meaningful material basis for further quality control and pharmacological research.