Chemical profile of the active fraction of Yi-Gan San by HPLC-DAD-Q-TOF-MS and its neuroprotective effect against glutamate-induced cytotoxicity

Yi-Gan San(YGS),a traditional Chinese medicine for dementia-related symptoms,was previously fractionated.One active fraction,YGS40 exhibited a neuroprotective effect against glutamate-induced cytotoxicity.In the present study,high-performance liquid chromatography,coupled with diode-array detection and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry,was applied for the identification of its chemical constituents and for quantification studies.The chemical profile of YGS40 consisted of sixty-four identified or tentatively characterized compounds.The levels of the major marker compounds increased significantly in the mixed decoction compared with those in the single plant decoction.The results suggest the high precision of the analyses of most of the constituents in YGS40 and establish the quantitative variations of the major marker compounds between the single and mixed decoction processes.