Screening and Identification of the Metabolites of Water Extracts of Raw and Honey-Processed Astragalus in Rat Urine Based on UHPLC/ESI-Q-TOF-MS and Multivariate Statistical Analysis
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Abstract
Radix Astragali is a famous traditional Chinese medicine and honey-processed Astragalus is a product of Radix Astragali acquired by honey-processing. These two products are widely utilized to treat various diseases. In this study, we screened bioactive components and metabolites of raw and honey-processed Astragalus in rat urine by ultra-performance liquid chromatography equipped with electrospray ionization/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/ESI-Q-TOF-MS) combined with multivariate statistical analysis. In total, 62 compounds, including 7 parent compounds and 55 metabolites, were detected and 11 metabolites were characterized for the first time. The identified metabolites indicated that the metabolic reactions of Astragalus in rats included hydroxylation, glucuronidation, deglucosidation, monomethylation, demethylation, sulfation, hydrogenation, and dehydroxylation. The metabolic pathways of raw and honey-processed Astragalus in rat urine also were clarified. Through multivariate statistical analysis of the data of the raw and honey-processed Astragalus groups, we found that 20 compounds were differential components and that 1 metabolite only existed in the honey-processed Astragalus group. The differences in these ingredients between these two groups might provide the basis for interpreting the biologic activity differences in traditional Chinese medicine treatments.
Graphical Abstract
Keywords
Radix Astragali Honey-processed UHPLC/ESI-Q-TOF-MS Multivariate statistical analysis MetaboliteAbbreviations
- UHPLC/ESI-Q-TOF-MS
Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry
- PCA
Principal component analysis
- OPLS-DA
Orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis
- PLS-DA
Partial least squares-discriminant analysis
- EICS
Extracted ion chromatograms
- m/z
Mass-to-charge ratio
- BPI
Base peak ion chromatograms
- MS/MS
Tandem mass spectrometry
Notes
Funding Information
This work was funded by the National Science Foundation of China (Nos.81202917 and 81573607) and the Key Program of the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (No.2017A030311031).
Compliance with Ethical Standards
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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