Investigation of the Effect of Rice Wine on the Metabolites of the Main Components of Herbal Medicine in Rat Urine by Ultrahigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole/Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry: A Case Study onCornus officinalis

Abstract

Ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF/MS) was developed for rapid and sensitive analysis of the effect of rice wine on the metabolites of the main components of herbal medicine in rat urine. UsingCornus officinalisas a model of herbal medicine, the metabolite profiles of crude and processed (steaming the crude drug presteeped in rice wine)Cornus officinalisextracts in rat urine were investigated. The metabolites ofCornus officinaliswere identified by using dynamic adjustment of the fragmentor voltage to produce structure-relevant fragment ions. In this work, we identified the parent compounds and metabolites of crude and processedCornus officinalisin rats. In total, three parent compounds and seventeen new metabolites ofCornus officinaliswere found in rats. The contents of the parent compounds and metabolitesin vivovaried significantly after intragastric (i.g.) administration of aqueous extracts of crude and processedCornus officinalis. Data from this study suggests that UPLC-QTOF/MS could be used as a potential tool for uncovering the effects of excipients found in the metabolites of the main components of herbal medicine,in vivo, to predict and discover the processing mechanisms of herbal medicine.