OBJECTIVE

2

To establish a content determination method for multiple components in

Sophora flavescens

from different origins and to evaluate its quality by combining with chemometrics.

METHODS

2

Thirteen batches （No. K1-K13） of

S. flavescens

from different origins were selected as test samples. A high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem triple quadrupole mass spectrometry （HPLC-MS/MS） method was established to determine the contents of 12 components， including matrine， oxymatrine， betaine， cytisine，

N

-methylcytisine， sophoridine， genistein， sophoricoside， sophorone， formononetin， sophorolone Ⅰ and norkurarinone in

S. flavescens

. Chromatographic separation was performed on a Shim-pack GIST-HP C

18

column with a mobile phase consisting of methanol （A） and water containing 0.1% formic acid （B）， using gradient elution at a flow rate of 0.25 mL/min， column temperature of 35 ℃， and an injection volume of 3 μL. Mass spectrometry was conducted using an electrospray ionization source with positive and negative ion scanning. Data were collected in segments using the multiple reaction monitoring mode. Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution （TOPSIS） and grey relational analysis （GRA） methods were employed to compare and comprehensively evaluate the 13 batches of

S. flavescens

from different origins.

RESULTS

2

The methodological validation for the content determination met the relevant regulatory requirements. The contents of the 12 components were 490.66-1 231.00， 11 088.10- 18 021.50， 7.91-25.38， 903.97-1 713.64， 336.08-1 485.54， 1 065.33-2 075.50， 27.52-71.80， 109.36-517.83， 6 034.55-10 632.73， 21.26-145.35， 814.84-1 911.32， 1 040.87-3 446.37 μg/g）， respectively. TOPSIS results showed that the top 7 samples in Euclidean distance ranking were K6， K12， K11， K3， K5， K10， K13. The GRA results showed that the top 7 samples in the relative correlation ranking were K12， K11， K10， K6， K13， K5， K3.

CONCLUSIONS

2

The established HPLC-MS/MS method is rapid， accurate， highly sensitive， stable and reliable. Combined with chemometrics methods， it can be used for the quality control and evaluation of

S. flavescens

. The comprehensive quality of samples K3， K5， K6

（from Hebei）， K10 （from Sichuan）， K11-K13 （from Shanxi）， etc. is relatively superior.