Objective:To establish a fingerprint quality control method of medicated leaven

and to compare the change of effective components (such as quercitin

luteolin

quercetin

and so on) about medicated leaven composed of fresh or dry medicines before and after fermentation. Method:By studying on the decomposed recipes of medicated leaven

samples of four groups were prepared.Each group was fermented separately under the prior optimum conditions

taking samples before fermentation and after the completion of the fermentation

and then samples dried at 40℃ for testing.LC-MS analysis was performed on a Ulitimate XB-C18 column (4.6 mm×250 mm

5 μm) with the mobile phase consisting of methanol-0.2% formic acid aqueous solution in gradient mode

the flow rate was 1.0 mL·min-1

the detection wavelength was set at 254 nm

electrospray ionization source(ESI) was adopted in positive ion mode. Result:A total of 15 common peaks were confirmed in the fingerprint of medicated leaven composed of fresh medicines or dry ones;among them

peak 10

13

15 were quercitin

luteolin

quercetin

respectively.The base group contained only a very small amount of luteolin determined by LC-MS

the content of this ingredient was 18.5 μg·g-1 and 21.3 μg·g-1 before and after fermentation

it was significantly lower than the other groups.The contents of quercitin

luteolin

quercetin in the second group (composed of fresh medicines) were higher and had obvious advantages than the other groups before the fermentation

after fermentation

the amounts of luteolin and quercetin had grown by 54.8% and 4.53%

respectively

but the content of quercitrin was slightly reduced by 0.76%.The contents of quercitin

luteolin

quercetin in the 4th group (composed of dry ones) were significantly increased after fermentation. Conclusion:The method is precise

accurate with high repeatability

which is suitable for quantitative evaluation of medicated leaven.In addition

the fermentation method can increase the solubility of active ingredients and the occurrence of biological transformation reactions about medicated leaven

the results show that the changes of pharmacological substances of medicated leaven before and after fermentation and pharmacodynamic material basis of fresh medicines is better than dry ones be used as medicine.