Quality consistency evaluation on four origins of Cicadae Periostracum by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry analysis.

Cicadae Periostracum, which is derived from the slough of Cicadidae insects, is a commonly used crude drug in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). As specified in Chinese Pharmacopoeia, Cryptotympana atrata (CA) is the only official species of this crude drug. However, the slough of other three species, i.e., Auritibicen flammatus (AF), Cryptotympana mandrina (CM) and Platypleura kaempferi (PK), have been also used as the origins of Cicadae Periostracum in Chinese herbal market, although whether the quality of these four origins is consistent or not is still unknown. In present study, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS) was employed to qualitatively and quantitatively compare the chemical profiles of the four origins. Totally, 34 N-acetyldopamine polymers were identified from the four origins, including 4 N-acetyldopamine dimers, 11 N-acetyldopamine trimers, 10 N-acetyldopamine tetramers, and 9 N-acetyldopamine pentamers. AF, CM and PK had similar chemical profiles with that of CA. The contents and compositional ratio of the four types of polymers in CA, AF and CM were consistent with each other, but significantly lower or different in PK. All these results suggested that AF and CM might be considered as the potential resources of Cicadae Periostracum concerning their consistent holistic quality, whereas whether PK could be used as potential origin of Cicadae Periostracum or not need further evaluation for their different compositional ratios and contents of the four types of N-acetyldopamine polymers. This is the first study on chemical profiling and comparison of N-acetyldopamine polymers in four origins of Cicadae Periostracum, which is beneficial for potential resources utilization and quality standard improvement of Cicadae Periostracum.