Discrimination and characterization of the volatile organic compounds of Acori tatarinowii rhizoma based on headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry and headspace solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Acori tatarinowii rhizome (ATR) is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which has multiple effects, such as neuroprotective activity, antidepressant and other activity. However, the widespread cultivation of ATR has led to it varying quality. Therefore, it is important to find a method to quickly identify the components of ATR. Headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS) and headspace solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) were applied to analyze and characterize the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of ATR. 33 VOCs were identified by HS-GC-IMS and 95 VOCs were identified by HS-SPME-GC-MS from 15 batches of ATR. Then, quantification of estragole, methyleugenol, c-asarone, 0-asarone and asarone by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The fin-gerprint of HS-GC-IMS and the heatmap of HS-SPME-GC-MS were established. Which com-pared differential components of ATR. In addition, principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on the results of both instruments. The VOCs in the ATR were significantly correlated with 0-asarone and asarone by PatternHunter analysis. It assisted HS-GC-IMS determine ATR quality. It is the first report regarding the method development of HS-GC-IMS and HS-SPME-GC-MS that targets the VOCs characterization of ATR, and the findings obtained would benefit the quality control and distinguish the complex analytical objects of ATR.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study developed a method for quickly identifying the components of Acori tatarinowii rhizome (ATR) using headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS) and headspace solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS) to analyze and characterize the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of ATR. The results showed that these methods can effectively identify the quality of ATR and establish its fingerprint and heatmap.