Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry for chemical constituents analysis of tripterygium glycosides tablets

Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography platform (LC × LC) coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) mass spectrometry (MS) is developed to separate, identify and relatively determine the chemical constituents of two types of tripterygium glycosides tablets (TGT). The types and relative contents of the constituents discovered in two kinds of TGT tablets were subsequently compared. C8 and C18 column were used for the separation of the first and second dimensional chromatography (1D and 2D) respectively, and an integrated shift and full gradient mode was used in 2D. Using this LC × LC–QTOF-MS platform, 92 and 132 constituents were detected in TGT preparations from Hubei and Hunan manufacturers respectively (HB-TGT and HN-TGT), most of which belonged to the diterpenoid, triterpenoid and alkaloid families. 50 and 90 compounds were unique in HB-TGT and HN-TGT, respectively, and their relative contents proportion were 52.0% and 54.2% of HB-TGT and HN-TGT, respectively. Furthermore, two TGT tablets could both lead to obvious change in biochemical parameters, oxidative stress related parameters and histopathological status to different degree. In all, the LC × LC–QTOF-MS platform offer a powerful and efficient method for characterizing, identifying and semi-quantifying chemical components in TGT preparations.