Application of Ultra‑performance Liquid Chromatography with Time‑of‑Flight Mass Spectrometry for the Rapid Analysis of Constituents and Metabolites from the Extracts of Acanthopanax senticosus Harms Leaf

Acanthopanax senticosus (Rupr and Maxim) Harms (AS), a member of Araliaceae family, is a typical folk medicinal herb, which is widely distributed in the Northeastern part of China. Due to lack of this resource caused by the extensive use of its root, this work studied the chemical constituents of leaves of this plant with the purpose of looking for an alternative resource. In this work, a fast and optimized ultra‑performance liquid chromatography method with quadrupole time‑of‑flight mass spectrometry (UPLC‑QTOF‑MS) has been developed for the analysis of constituents in leaves extracts. A total of 131 compounds were identified or tentatively characterized including triterpenoid saponins, phenols, flavonoids, lignans, coumarins, polysaccharides, and other compounds based on their fragmentation behaviors. Besides, a total of 21 metabolites were identified in serum in rats after oral administration, among which 12 prototypes and 9 metabolites through the metabolic pathways of reduction, methylation, sulfate conjugation, sulfoxide to thioether and deglycosylation. The coupling of UPLC‑QTOF‑MS led to the in‑depth characterization of the leaves extracts of AS both in vitro and in vivo on the basis of retention time, mass accuracy, and tandem MS/MS spectra. It concluded that this analytical tool was very valuable in the study of complex compounds in medicinal herb.