Profiling and identification of the absorbed constituents and metabolites of schisandra lignans by ultra‐performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry

Schisandra chinensis Baill grows wild in Russia, China, Korea and Japan, and its fruit has been found to be effective in amnesia and insomnia. It is enriched in schisandra lignans (SL) that are major components responsible for therapeutic action. However, there are no reports on the biotransformation analysis of SL. An ultra‐performance liquid chromatography/electrospray‐ionization high‐definition mass spectrometry (UPLC‐Q‐TOF‐HDMS) method was developed to investigate the metabolism of SL in vivo. MS was performed on a Waters Micromass high‐definition system with an electrospray ionization source in positive ion mode and automated MetaboLynx software analysis with excellent MS accuracy and enhanced MS data acquisition. An improved mass defect filter (MDF) method employing both drug and core structure filter templates was applied to the processing of UPLC‐Q‐TOF‐HDMS data for the detection and structural characterization of metabolites. In this study, 30 metabolites were detected and identified in vivo, and demethylation and hydroxylation were confirmed as the primacy metabolic pathway for SL in rat plasma. In conclusion, the presently developed methodology was suitable for biotransformation research of SL and will find wide use in metabolic studies for other herbal medicines. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.