Quantitative and qualitative analyses of cytotoxic triterpenoids in the rhizomes of Anemone raddeana using HPLC and HPLC-ESI-Q/TOF-MS

Anemone raddeana Regel, a Traditional Chinese Medicine, has been demonstrated to possesscytotoxicity and anti-inflammatory activities. The purpose of this study is to establishanalytical methods to identify and quantify the major active constituents in Anemoneraddeana. A high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionizationquadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-Q/TOF-MS) was used toidentify the components in the title plant material. To quantify the major components, aHPLC-UV method was developed and validated. The results showed that 37 compoundswere identified based on the MS data and retention times. The contents of eight mainbioactive compounds were determined by HPLC simultaneously. These methods could beused to effectively evaluate the quality of A. raddeana and provide a valuable reference forfurther study. In addition, the cytotoxicity activity of the different fractions of A. raddeanawas determined. Hederacolchiside A1 (f) showed promising activity against ten humancancer cell lines with IC50 values from 0.29 to 3.48 mM.