Bioactivity fingerprint analysis of cyclooxygenase-2 ligands from radix Aconiti by ultrafiltration-UPLC-MSn

A novel fingerprinting method, bioactivity fingerprint analysis, based on an ultrafiltration-ultraperformance liquid chromatography-multistage tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS (n) ) method is proposed for the quality control of herbal medicines from the bioactivity viewpoint concerning the efficacy of herbal medicines. The bioactivity fingerprints reflecting the anti-inflammatory activities of radix Aconiti and radix Aconiti preparata were established. With use of ultrafiltration UPLC-MS (n) , 11 cyclooxygenase-2 ligands from radix Aconiti preparata and 14 cyclooxygenase-2 ligands from radix Aconiti were found after incubation with cyclooxygenase-2. Twelve of the cyclooxygenase-2 ligands were identified by the ultraperformance UPLC-MS (n) method. The enrichment factor of each peak in the bioactivity fingerprint was calculated and was demonstrated to be characteristic, which makes bioactivity fingerprint analysis for the quality control of herbal medicines possible from the viewpoint of their bioactivities.