High Performance Liquid Chromatography–Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry Based Metabolomic Detection of Non-Volatile Components of Different Chemotype of Cinnamomum camphora

Abstract

A liquid chromatography−quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC−QTOF/MS) based plant metabolomics approach was established to investigate the metabolic profiles of the Cinnamomum camphora leaves of four different areas. The LC−QTOF/MS data were subjected to principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squared discrimination analysis (OPLS-DA) to find the potential characteristic components of C. camphora leaves from the four areas in a quick way. C. camphora leaves from different areas could be separated into four different groups chemically according to the PCA scores. The chemical constituents in C. camphora leaves from four areas were obviously different. The potential markers were identified by comparison with the reference compounds or were tentatively assigned by matching the retention time, empirical molecular formula and fragment ions with those of the published compounds of C. camphora leaves. The proposed analytical method is fast, accurate and reliable for differentiating C. camphora leaves from different areas. Moreover, this study supplied a new method for the quality evaluation of other medicinal materials.