Determination of Multiple Active Constituents of Scrophulariae Radix with Different Processed Products and Grey Relational Analysis

Scrophulariae Radix is one of the most popular traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs). Primary processing of Scrophulariae Radix is an important link which closely related to the quality of products in this TCM. A method of ultra high performance coupled with triple quadrupole liner ion trap mass spectrometry (UPLC-Qtrap-MS/MS) was established for the determination of iridoid, phenylpropanoid glycosides and organic acids in Scrophulariae Radix. The goal of the method was to investigate the influences on multiple active constituents with different processing methods of Scrophulariae Radix. Twelve multiple active constituents in Scrophulariae Radix with different processing methods were simultaneous determined by UPLC-Qtrap-MS/MS, and grey incidence degree method analysis was performed to evaluate the different processed samples according to the contents of twelve multiple active constituents. The analysis was carried out on an BDS HYPERSIL C18 column (250 mm×4.6 mm×5 μm), with elution of acetonitrile-water as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min. The column temperature was 35 ℃. The target compounds were analyzed by the negative ion multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. The results show that twelve multiple active constituents have good linearity (r≥0.999 0) in the range of the tested concentration. The average recoveries of the twelve components are 95.82%-99.35% with the relative standard deviations less than 2.44%. There are differences in multiple active constituents of Scrophulariae Radix with different processing methods and the processing method of air drying method and complete root by oven drying after steaming had a better quality. The method is useful for the overall assessment on quality of Scrophulariae Radix, and this study may provide the foundation and support for processing method of Scrophulariae Radix in normalization and standardization.