Effects Of Pre-extraction Handling On The Extractable Chemical Components Of Safflower

In this study, an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) in multiple reaction mode method was established to simultaneously quantify protocatechuic acid, chlorogenic acid, hydroxysafflor yellow A,3-6-hydroxykaempferol3,6,7triglucoside, p-coumaeic acid,6-hydroxykaempferol-3-rutinoside6-glucoside, isoquercitin, kaempferol-3-glucoside, and kaempferol-3-rutinoside in the flowers of Carthamus tinctorius (safflower). Abrusin2"-O-β-apioside was used as an internal standard. The established UPLC-MS method was used to compare the extractable amounts of compounds from safflower samples with different pre-extraction handling treatments. The three kinds of samples were prepared by subjecting the dried whole flowers of C. tinctorius to powdering, oil pressing and no pre-extraction handling. Each sample was extracted with methanol containing the internal standard. Agilent ZORBAX RRHD Eclipse Plus C18column (50mm×2.1mm i.d:1.8μm) was used for compounds separation and methanol-0.1%formic acid/water was used as the mobile phase. As a result, the nine compounds were completely separated in12min and the correlation coefficients were greater than0.9924within their linear ranges. The method is fast, sensitive, simple, accurate, and can be used in quality control of safflower based products. Quantification results of the three kinds of safflower samples suggested that pre-extraction handling could significantly influence the extractable amounts of safflower constituents. The oil pressing handling resulted in the highest amounts of the nine compounds and thus provided a scientific advice for safflower pre-extraction handling to produce high quality safflower extract and resulted in the highest amounts of the nine compounds and thus provided a scientific advice for safflower pre-extraction handling to produce high quality safflower extract and safflower based products.