Identification of multiple constituents in the traditional Chinese medicine formula Sheng-Mai San and rat plasma after oral administration by HPLC-DAD-MS/MS.

Sheng-Mai San (SMS), a traditional Chinese medicine formula, has been used for the treatment of cardiovascular disease in Asia over long period of time. While its effectiveness has been confirmed by clinical use, its active chemical constituents remain unclear. In this paper, an HPLC-DAD-MS/MS method is described for the efficient and rapid identification of the chemical constituents in SMS extract. MS/MS fragmentation behavior of authentic compounds was proposed for aiding the structural identification of the components. A total of 53 compounds were identified or tentatively characterized by comparing their retention times, UV and MS spectra with those of authentic compounds or literature data. HPLC/UV and MS techniques were employed to screen for the potential bioactive components in rat plasma after oral administration of SMS. Twenty-five compounds including 14 prototype components and 11 metabolites were detected in dosed rat plasma compared with blank rat plasma. This identification and structural elucidation of the chemical constituents in the medicine formula and rat plasma may provide important experimental data for further pharmacological and clinical research.