A proposed protocol based on integrative metabonomics analysis for the rapid detection and mechanistic understanding of sulfur fumigation of Chinese herbal medicines

A Practical Protocol for a Comprehensive Evaluation of Sulfur Fumigation of Trichosanthis Radix Based on Both Non-Targeted and Widely Targeted Metabolomics

Trichosanthis Radix (TR) is one of the most severely sulfur-fumigated herbs in the market, whose transformation mechanism of chemical compositions and sulfur-fumigation markers of TR have not been clarified. To excavate characteristic sulfur-fumigation markers of TR samples, this study brings up a practical protocol using both ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight-mass spectrum (UPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS/MS)-based non-targeted metabolomics and ultra-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization/quadrupole multiple-stage linear ion-trap mass spectrum (UPLC-ESI-QTRAP-MS/MS)-based widely targeted metabolomics. The results of study demonstrated that five characteristic markers are sulfur-containing components, which were identified as p-Hydroxybenzyl hydrogen sulfite, cucurbitacin D sulfite I, cucurbitacin D sulfite II, cucurbitacin B sulfite I, and cucurbitacin B sulfite II, respectively. Additionally, cucurbitacin B and D were also filtered and identified as the characteristic sulfur-fumigation markers. Meanwhile, the different sulfur-fumigation extent of TR samples was tested by chemical transformations analysis and sulfur dioxide residues test. Further, 58.16% (139 of 239) of the differential metabolites content significantly reduced in sulfur-fumigated TR samples. Besides, 20 kinds of non-sulfur marker metabolites were tested to evaluate the quality of TR samples before and after sulfur fumigation, predominantly including phenolic acids, amino acids, lipids and nucleotides. Taking TR as an example, this work provides a comprehensive practical protocol for the quality supervision of sulfur-fumigation herbs.