Serum pharmacochemistry for tracking bioactive components by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS combined chromatographic fingerprint for quality assessment of Sanziguben Granule

• Chromatographic fingerprint was established by HPLC to qualitatively control Sanziguben Granule in its entirety.
• A serum pharmacochemistry study on Sanziguben Granule was performed to track the bioactive components purposefully.
• Quantitative control of Sanziguben Granule: determing the content of bioactive components and total polysaccharides.

To more reasonably and effectively control the quality of Sanziguben Granule, chromatographic fingerprinting and serum pharmacochemistry of this traditional Chinese medicine compound were performed. A comprehensive comparison and evaluation of 15 batches of Sanziguben Granule was successfully conducted by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint analysis.After administering a set amount of Sanziguben Granule orally to rats, blood samples were collected and tested 4 times at intervals of 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, and 4 h using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS/MS. The blood showed presence of gallic acid and corilagin indicating the pharmacological significance of these two chemical compounds.According to the result, above mentional chemical compounds were designated biomarkers for quality control of Sanziguben Granule. Therefore, a purposeful and efficient method for quality control of Sanziguben Granule was established in the present study.