Systematic Screening of Chemical Constituents in the Traditional Chinese Medicine Arnebiae Radix by UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry

(dried root of (Royle) Johnst.) has been used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat macular eruptions, measles, sore throat, carbuncles, burns, skin ulcers, and inflammation. Previous studies have shown that shikonins and shikonofurans are two of their main bioactive ingredients. However, systematic investigations of their constituents have rarely been conducted. It is necessary to establish a rapid and effective method to identify the chemical constituents of . This will help to further improve the effective resource utilization rate of this plant. In this study, a rapid and effective UHPLC-Q-Exactive Orbitrap mass spectrometry method was established to simultaneously analyze chemical ingredients in within a short period of time. Based on the results of a full scan MS, the MS database (mzVault and mzCloud), the diagnostic fragment ions, the retention time, and the bibliography, a total of 188 compounds were identified, with 114 of those being reported from for the first time. The results of this study lay the foundation for obtaining a thorough understanding of the active ingredients in and its quality control. This method may be widely used for the chemical characterization of different samples.