Study on the differences of active ingredients among different medicinal parts of Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) based on LC-MS combined with multivariate statistical analysis

Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels (DG). has a history of medicinal use for thousands of years. In order to meet clinical needs, it is often divided into DG head, body, tail, and whole DG for use, which means that there are differences between different parts. However, in the existing literature, there are few studies on different parts of DG, and they only compare the differences of a single chemical component in different parts of DG, and do not comprehensively analyze the differences of other components. Therefore, an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole orbitalrap mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap/MS) based combined with an untargeted metabolomics approach was used to compare the diversity of chemical constituents in different parts of DG. After multivariate statistical analysis, 537 differential compounds were screened, and 85 metabolites including 36 phthalides, 10 organic acids, 8 fatty acids, 6 amino acids, 4 coumarins, 4 esters, 3 phenylpropanoids, and 14 others were finally identified. After comparative analysis, the distribution of various components in different parts can be clarified. This study not only compared the differences in the chemical composition of different parts of DG, but also analyzed the relationship between important components and pharmacological effects in different parts, which provided a basis for more rational use of different parts of DG.