Liquid Chromatography–High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry with ROI Strategy for Non-targeted Analysis of the In Vivo/In Vitro Ingredients Coming from Ligusticum chuanxiong hort

Mass spectral resolution for clean mass spectra is a very challenging task in non-targeted hyphenated techniques, especially for massive amounts of such data from herbs. In this work, the regions of interest (ROI) strategy was used to compress liquid chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC–HRMS) data. For single or overlapped peaks, a rule of “first in, first out” was intended for visual recognition of features that could be of relevance in ROI curves. In the light of the two embedded peaks in a local segment, an improved selective ion analysis after ROI compression (ROI–SIA) possesses the main advantages of being rapid, automatic and parameter free. From the clean mass spectra above, we can estimate their correct feature sets that belong to the same compound. Tandem MS spectra were further determined, and peak annotations were rediscovered in known natural products by the interpretation of known MS/MS fragmentations. These procedures were tested in the analysis of the LC–HR–MS data coming from phytochemicals in Ligusticum chuanxiong with satisfactory results. The in vivo prototypes were also characterized in mice plasma after oral administration of the herbal extract. These analytical results provide an important basis for the identification of active ingredients, also used for a further investigation on the efficacy of different technologies.