An HPLC/MS method for identifying major constituents in the hypocholesterolemic extracts of Chinese medicine formula 'Xue-Fu-Zhu-Yu decoction'.

In this paper, HPLC-ESI-MS technique was used to analyze the hypocholesterolemic extracts of 'Xue-Fu-Zhu-Yu decoction', a traditional Chinese medicine consisting of six crude drugs (i.e. Paeonia lactiflora, Ligusticum chuanxiong, Citrus aurantium, Carthamus tinctorius, Prunus persica and Bupleurum falcatum). A total of 17 compounds were identified and their plant derivations were also distinguished. Nine compounds among them were unambiguously determined as oxypaeoniflorin, amygdalin, albiflorin, paeoniflorin, ferulic acid, naringin, hesperidin, senkyunolide I and neohesperidin by comparing the retention times (tR), UV spectra and m/z values with those of the reference compounds. The other eight compounds were tentatively identified as prunasin, 6-hydroxy-kaempferol 3,6-diglucoside, 6-hydroxykaempferol 3-rutinoside-6-glucoside, galloylpaeoniflorin, 6-hydroxy-kaempferol 3-glucoside, anhydrosafflor yellow B, narirutin and kaempferol 3-rutinoside by MS2 spectra and the comparison of their UV spectra and MS spectra with literature data. Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.