Systematic screening and characterization of astragalosides in an oral solution of Radix Astragali by liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry and Peakview software.

Liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry coupled with automated data analysis by Peakview software was employed to systematically screen and characterize the astragalosides in Radix Astragali, a Chinese medical preparation. The separation was performed on a poroshell 120 SB-C18 column equipped in a conventional liquid chromatography system. After being separated using a general gradient elution, the analytes were detected by the triple quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer in both positive- and negative-ion modes. The mass defect filtering function built in the Peakview software was utilized to rapidly screen the potential ions of interest, while some functions of Peakview such as Formula Finder, XIC manager, and IDA Explorer were employed to facilitate the assignment or characterization of the screened astragalosides. A total of 42 astragalosides were screened and tentatively characterized or assigned, and 20 of them were firstly detected in Radix Astragali. According to the screened astragalosides, acetylation, glycosidation, hydrogenation, oxidation, and hydration were considered to be the major secondary metabolic pathways involved in the formation of the astragalosides. The combination of liquid chromatography with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry and automated Peakview analysis is a feasible and efficient tool to screen and identify the constituents in complex matrices of herbal medicines.