A pseudotargeted method based on sequential window acquisition of all theoretical spectra mass spectrometry acquisition and its application in quality assessment of traditional Chinese medicine preparation-Yuanhu Zhitong tablet.

Quality control plays a key role in the application of Chinese materia medica, especially in the preparation of traditional Chinese medicine. A pseudotargeted analysis method using an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry that was operated in the sequential window acquisition of all theoretical spectra mode was proposed to explore the chemical markers of traditional Chinese medicine preparation. Full-scan-based untargeted analysis was applied to extract the target ions. After data preprocessing, 302 target ions were extracted and used for the subsequent sequential window acquisition of all theoretical spectra analyses. The established sequential window acquisition of all theoretical spectra-based pseudotargeted approaches exhibited good repeatability and a wide linear range. The established method was successfully applied to discover analytical markers for the Yuanhu Zhitong tablet. After multivariate statistical analysis, 94 potential markers were identified. Ten markers were annotated by matching accurate m/z and product ion information obtained from previous reports. It is clearly indicated that the pseudotargeted analysis could make a great contribution to the quality assessment of traditional Chinese medicine preparation as a newly emerging technique.