Discrimination of crude and processed rhubarb products using a chemometric approach based on ultra fast liquid chromatography with ion trap/time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Crude rhubarb subjected to different processing procedures will produce different therapeutic effects that are possibly due to processing-induced variation in chemical composition. In this study, a chemometric approach based on ultra fast liquid chromatography with ion trap/time-of-flight mass spectrometry was established to systematically investigate the chemical variations of rhubarb induced by different processing methods. The approach was validated based on pooled quality-control samples from two perspectives: the individual properties of variables and the bulk properties of samples. Orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis was introduced to compare the differences between crude and processed rhubarb products. A total of 20 significantly different markers were screened out and unambiguously/tentatively characterized. This research proved that a chemometric method based on ultra fast liquid chromatography with ion trap/time-of-flight mass spectrometry can comprehensively analyze the chemical variation of herbal medicine and provide evidence for a deeper understanding of the pharmacological activities of processed rhubarb products.