The Lianhua Qingwen (LHQW) capsule is a popular traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of viral respiratory diseases. In particular, it has been recently prescribed to treat infections caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, due to its complex composition, little attention has been directed toward the analysis of chemical constituents present in the LHQW capsule. This study presents a reliable and comprehensive approach to characterizing the chemical constituents present in LHQW by high-performance liquid chromatography-Q Exactive-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (HPLC-Q Exactive-Orbitrap-MS) coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). An automated library alignment method with a high mass accuracy (within 5 ppm) was used for the rapid identification of compounds. A total of 104 compounds, consisting of alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, phenolic acids, phenylpropanoids, quinones, terpenoids, and other phytochemicals, were successfully characterized. In addition, the fragmentation pathways and characteristic fragments of some representative compounds were elucidated. GC-MS analysis was conducted to characterize the volatile compounds present in LHQW. In total, 17 compounds were putatively characterized by comparing the acquired data with that from the NIST library. The major constituent was menthol, and all the other compounds were terpenoids. This is the first comprehensive report on the identification of the major chemical constituents present in the LHQW capsule by HPLC-Q Exactive-Orbitrap-MS, coupled with GC-MS, and the results of this study can be used for the quality control and standardization of LHQW capsules.

连花清瘟胶囊是治疗病毒性呼吸道疾病的常用中药。特别是，它最近被用于治疗由严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 引起的感染。然而，由于其复杂的成分，很少有人关注 LHQW 胶囊中化学成分的分析。本研究提出了一种可靠且全面的方法，通过高效液相色谱-Q Exactive-Orbitrap 质谱 (HPLC-Q Exactive-Orbitrap-MS) 与气相色谱-质谱 (GC-MS) 相结合来表征 LHQW 中存在的化学成分。 ）。使用具有高质量准确度（5 ppm 以内）的自动文库比对方法来快速鉴定化合物。成功鉴定了 104 种化合物，包括生物碱、黄酮类、酚类、酚酸类、苯丙素类、醌类、萜类化合物和其他植物化学物质。此外，还阐明了一些代表性化合物的裂解途径和特征片段。进行 GC-MS 分析来表征 LHQW 中存在的挥发性化合物。通过将获得的数据与 NIST 库中的数据进行比较，推测总共 17 种化合物被表征。主要成分是薄荷醇，所有其他化合物都是萜类化合物。这是第一份通过 HPLC-Q Exactive-Orbitrap-MS 结合 GC-MS 鉴定 LHQW 胶囊中主要化学成分的综合报告，该研究结果可用于质量控制和标准化LHQW 胶囊。