Research Of Quality Evaluation And Commercial Grades Of Moutan Cortex

Moutan Cortex is one of the most stable TCM（Traditional Chinese medicine）trade with a large volume.Commercial grades for Moutan Cortex in the market lacks a unified standards to classifying them according to our recent research.Except for the traditional deviding method it also devided by the degree of sulfuring and xylem-removing rates.However,there are contradiction between Commercial grades for Moutan Cortex in commercial specification standard for 76 kinds of medicinal materials and character description in Chinese pharmacopoeia.So further study is needed to regulate the market transaction of Moutan Cortex,to guide the market to high quality and appropriate price,forming a virtuous circle.Firstly,the current status of Moutan Cortex grades in the market was summarized by origin and market survey,and the samples were accumulated to analyze the relationship between characteristics and grades.Then,factors affecting the grading of Moutan Cortex were systematically analyzed,mainly based on UPLC-Q-TOF-MS and UPLC-Q-TRAP-MS-MS.At last,the possible relationship between character data and chemical compounds were analysed too.1.Origin and market survey were carried out.It resulted that:a.Moutan Cortex was classified as Bodanpi,Chuandanpi and Fengdanpi by producing area.Among them,Bodanpi occupied the highest proportion,Fengdanpi,without removing the cork,obtains the best quality;and the production of Chuandanpi decreased year by year;b.they were classified into Yuandanpi and Guadanpi according to whether the cork was removed out or not;c.they were classified by diameter size too;d.in addition,there were excessive sulfured,low-xylem-removing rates and slice samples in the market which could not meet the current pharmacopoeia standard.2.An UPLC-Q-TOF-MS method was established,and the mass spectra cracking of different types of chemical components in Moutan Cortex were summarized.Based on this,a total of 119 compounds were tentatively identified.3.When it comes to sulfured and desulfured Moutan Cortex,it indicated that the acidic environment caused by sulfuring can reduce the content of sugars,glycosides and other compounds in the Moutan cortex by hydrolyzing.On the other hand,SO₂ or H2SO₃,can combined with 6-OH of many monoterpenes（13of which were detected in this study）by esterifying,reducing the content of some original monoterpenes.Desulfurization fluid with acidic and strong oxidizing property had more complex influence on the compounds in Moutan Cortex.Compared with sulfured Moutan Cortex,the content of a lot of compounds decreased durring desulfuring process.These two kinds of processing methods would be harmful to the quality of Moutan Cortex.Therefore,it was suggested that Moutan Cortex sulfuring process should be avoid.And the standards wouldn’t classify them by the content of SO₂.4.The different among Moutan Cortex from different origin in chemical composition were analyzed.The result showed that there were no obvious difference between Bozhou and Tongling but obvious differences between Anhui and Dianjiang.Hexagallylglucose and heptagallylglucose in Moutan Cortex produced in Anhui province was higher than Chuandanpi.Whereas Chuandanpi contents more monoterpene glycosidess,galloylglucose,acetophenones,methyl gallate and galloyl-3-O-methyl gallate.The standard would divide the Moutan Cortex into the Fengdanpi and other Moutan Cortex according to producing areas.5.When it comes to the problems about removing cork and xylem,the difference of chemical composition in different positions of the root of P.suffruticosa was analysed too.It resulted that the cork contains the most abundant compounds,and there was a lot of compounds only found in cork.And the cork contains more paeoniflorins and tannins,phloem contains more oligosaccharides and acetophenones,xylem contains less abundant type of compounds.It verified the rationality and validity of removing xylem.Considering processing cost,it was suggested that the cork of Moutan Cortex should not be removed.However,due to the large amount of Guadanpi in the market,and the processing method of removing cork of Moutan Cortex recorded in Chinese pharmacopoeia,they were classified into Liandanpi and Guadanpi in other Moutan Cortex.And Fendanpi was not cork-removing,so Fengdanpi were not devided by whether the cork were removed or not.6.In addition,the content of 10 secondary metabolites and polysaccharide determination method were established by UPLC-Q-TRAP-MS-MS and ultraviolet spectrophotometer.Then the character data of Moutan Cortex in different grades were determined and the relationship between it and the content of chemical compounds was analysed.It resulted that the content of various secondary metabolites was negatively correlated with their size and polysaccharide content was positively correlated with the size.The qualification of Moutan Cortex should not be evaluated by content of the content of a certain compounds.And the grade of them was mainly classified by length and diameter.Based on the study,Fengdanpi was classified as an independent specification,and other Moutan Cortex was classified as another specification.And the Moutan Cortex produced in other place was devided into Guadanpi and Liandanpi,each specification was then devided into different grades by diameter and length size.The internal composition difference of the processing methods and different parts are greater than that producing areas and diameters,which would have a great influence on the quality of TCMs.And there is no specific standards for them until now.Therefore,market supervision should be strengthened,especially in the process of processing and storage.And it’s necessary to carry out the research on the processing and storage technology of TCMs.