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Introduction: Alismatis rhizoma (AR), a distinguished diuretic traditional Chinese herbal medicine, is widely used for the treatment of diarrhea, edema, nephropathy, hyperlipidemia, and tumors in clinical settings. Most beneficial effects of AR are attributed to the major triterpenoids, whose contents are relatively high in AR. To date, only 25 triterpenoids in AR have been characterized by LC‐MS because the low‐mass diagnostic ions are hardly triggered in MS, impeding structural identification. Herein, we developed an advanced data post‐processing method with abundant characteristic fragments (CFs) and neutral losses (NLs) for rapid identification and classification of the major triterpenoids in AR by UPLC‐Q‐TOF‐MSE. Objective: We aimed to establish a systematic method for rapid identification and classification of the major triterpenoids of AR. Methods: UPLC‐Q‐TOF‐MSE coupled with an advanced data post‐processing method was established to characterize the major triterpenoids of AR. The abundant CFs and NLs of different types of triterpenoids were discovered and systematically summarized. The rapid identification and classification of the major triterpenoids of AR were realized by processing the data and comparing with information described in the literature. Results: In this study, a total of 44 triterpenoids were identified from AR, including three potentially new compounds and 41 known ones, which were classified into six types. Conclusion: The newly established approach is suitable for the chemical profiling of the major triterpenoids in AR, which could provide useful information about chemical constituents and a basis for further exploration of its active ingredients in vivo. UPLC‐Q‐TOF‐MSE combined with an advancing data post‐processing method was applied to comprehensively study the triterpenoids in Alismatis rhizoma (AR). Up to 44 triterpenoids were identified from AR and classified into six types, in which three type VI triterpenoids were potential new compounds. The characteristic fragments, neutral losses, and fragmentation pathways of representative compounds of each type were summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple and efficient method was developed for the chemical fingerprint analysis and simultaneous determination of four phenylnaphthalene-type lignans in Vitex negundo seeds using high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection. For fingerprint analysis, 13 V. negundo seed samples were collected from different regions in China, and the fingerprint chromatograms were matched by the computer-aided Similarity Evaluation System for Chromatographic Fingerprint of TCM (Version 2004A). A total of 21 common peaks found in all the chromatograms were used for evaluating the similarity between these samples. Additionally, simultaneous quantification of four major bioactive ingredients was conducted to assess the quality of V. negundo seeds. Our results indicated that the contents of four lignans in V. negundo seeds varied remarkably in herbal samples collected from different regions. Moreover, the hierarchical clustering analysis grouped these 13 samples into three categories, which was consistent with the chemotypes of those chromatograms. The method developed in this study provides a substantial foundation for the establishment of reasonable quality control standards for V. negundo seeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]