In the study of natural products new strategies which favor a holistic approach, integrating the traditional reductionist methods usually employed, have been proposed. In this frame, the studies carried out by us in the last decade show that fingerprints, mainly obtained by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS), lead to the characterization of natural extracts from different botanical species but also of phytotherapeutic products constituted by mixtures of extracts from different plants. Laser desorption ionization and matrix‐assisted laser desorption ionization techniques were also employed and by the use of different matrices some complementary results were achieved. Results obtained by standard spectrophotometric and liquid chromatography methods were compared with those achieved by direct infusion of the extract in ESI‐MS conditions, indicating an excellent agreement between the two approaches. The findings of these researches were considered in the frame of complex systems theory, investigating how relationships between a system's parts can give rise to its collective behaviors and how the system interacts and forms relationships with its environment. In this view, the peculiar pharmacological behavior of biologically active natural compounds can be justified by the occurrence of molecular interactions due to the high complexity of the natural matrix. Some of these interactions have been widely studied in the case of green tea extracts (GTEs) proving unequivocally the presence of caffeine/catechin complexes in GTE samples. The presence of bimolecular complexes has been observed also in the case of Ceylon tea and Mate extracts. These data indicate that the formation of complexes in natural extracts is a common behavior and their presence must be considered in the description of natural extracts and, consequently, in their biological activity. ©2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Mass Spec Rev

中文翻译：

---

用于植物治疗兴趣的天然提取物的整体视图的质谱法。

在天然产物的研究中，已经提出了有利于整体方法的新策略，整合了通常采用的传统还原论方法。在这个框架中，我们在过去十年中进行的研究表明，指纹，主要通过电喷雾电离质谱 (ESI-MS) 获得，导致对来自不同植物物种的天然提取物以及由混合物构成的植物治疗产品的表征来自不同植物的提取物。还采用了激光解吸电离和基质辅助激光解吸电离技术，并通过使用不同的基质获得了一些互补的结果。将标准分光光度法和液相色谱法获得的结果与在 ESI-MS 条件下直接注入提取物获得的结果进行比较，表明两种方法之间具有极好的一致性。这些研究的结果在复杂系统理论的框架内被考虑，研究系统各部分之间的关​​系如何引起其集体行为，以及系统如何与环境相互作用并形成关系。在这种观点下，由于天然基质的高度复杂性，可以通过分子相互作用的发生来证明具有生物活性的天然化合物的特殊药理行为是合理的。在绿茶提取物 (GTE) 的情况下，这些相互作用中的一些已被广泛研究，明确证明 GTE 样品中存在咖啡因/儿茶素复合物。在锡兰茶和马黛茶提取物的情况下也观察到双分子复合物的存在。这些数据表明，在天然提取物中形成复合物是一种常见的行为，在描述天然提取物时必须考虑到它们的存在，因此，在它们的生物活性中必须考虑到它们的存在。©2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 质谱修订版 因此，在它们的生物活性中。©2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 质谱修订版 因此，在它们的生物活性中。©2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 质谱修订版