Rapid Evaluation of Chemical Consistency of Artificially Induced and Natural Resina Draconis Using Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography Quadrupole-Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry-Based Chemical Profiling

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 23; no. 8; p. 1850
• Main Authors: Chen, Qianping, He, Lili, Mo, Changming, Zhang, Zhifeng, Long, Hairong, Gu, Xiaoyu, Wei, Ying
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 25.07.2018; MDPI
• Subjects: artificially induced; Blood circulation; Chromatography; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - methods; Dracaena - chemistry; Dracaena - metabolism; Dracaena cochinchinensis (Lour.) S. C. Chen; dragon’s blood; Evaluation; Flavonoids - analysis; Flavonoids - metabolism; Inflammation; Ions; Liquid chromatography; Literature reviews; Mass spectra; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Organic chemistry; Plant Extracts - biosynthesis; Plant Extracts - chemistry; Quadrupoles; Quality assessment; Quality control; Reproducibility of Results; Resina Draconis; Saponins - analysis; Saponins - metabolism; Scientific imaging; Spectroscopy; Steroids - analysis; Steroids - metabolism; Tandem Mass Spectrometry; UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS; dragon’s blood; artificially induced; Dracaena cochinchinensis (Lour.) S. C. Chen; Resina Draconis; UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules23081850

Resina Draconis is a highly valued traditional medicine widely used in Arabia since ancient times, and it has been commonly used as an antidiarrheic, antimicrobial, antiulcer, blood circulation promoter as well as an anti-inflammatory agent. The tree source from which this medicine orignates grows extremely slowly, producing a very low yield of Resina Draconis. To meet the increasing market demand, artificial methods for stimulating Resina Draconis formation have been developed and applied. However, the chemical differences between artificially induced Resina Draconis ( ) and natural Resina Draconis ( ) have been rarely studied. The aim of this research was to explore and identify the chemical constituents of and using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS) based chemical profiling. A total of 56 chromatographic peaks were detected in , of these, 44 peaks have had their structures tentatively characterized based on high-resolution mass spectra (HRMS) data, fragmentation ions information, reference standards data and literature review. In total, 40 peaks were found both in and The potential chemical transformation mechanisms active in Resina Draconis during formation were explored. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first evaluation of the chemical profiles of both and . Furthermore, these findings are expected to provide a rational basis for the quality assessment of and the use of as a substitute for .