Screening and identification of potential active components in crude Fructus Corni using solid-phase extraction and LC-LTQ-linear ion trap mass spectrometry.

CONTEXT: Fructus Corni is derived from the dry ripe sarcocarp of Cornus officinalis Sieb. et Zucc. (Cornaceae). It has attracted increasingly much attention as one of the most popular and valuable herbal medicine in clinic. This paper applied a rapid and validated method to the intrinsic quality control of Fructus Corni.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The components of crude Fructus Corni were investigated by means of solid-phase extraction (SPE) and LTQ-linear ion trap mass spectrometry (MS) technique in the negative ion mode.
RESULTS: The 29 detected compounds were identified by comparing the retention time and mass spectrometry data and retrieving the reference literatures. DISCUSSION AND
CONCLUSION: It was concluded that a rapid and validated method was successfully applied based on SPE-LC-DAD-LTQ-linear-MS(n) which showed high sensitivity and resolution that was more suitable for identifying main components in Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) and their prescriptions, which would be helpful to their quality control.