Combination of GC-MS with local resolution for determining volatile components in si-wu decoction

In this paper, the combination of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with chemometric local resolution techniques such as subwindow factor analysis (SFA) and orthogonal projection resolution (OPR) is investigated as a method of determining volatile components present in a traditional Chinese medicinal formulation known as si-wu decoction and its two individual herbs Rhizoma chuanxiong and Radix angelicae sinensis. In order to validate the reliability of the results obtained, the volatile components of interest were further separated on open glass columns and then analyzed in the same way as above. With the help of SFA and OPR approaches, the purity of chromatographic peaks can first be identified. Then, the pure chromatogram and mass spectrum of each component involved in a target peak cluster can be easily resolved and subsequently subjected to similarity searches in the NIST MS database to qualitatively and quantitatively determine the volatile components. Our results showed that about 127, 80, and 97 chemical components could be separated and 81, 49, and 55 of them identified, representing 83.95%, 91.86%, and 85.11% of the total relative content of volatile components from Rhizoma chuanxiong, Radix angelicae sinensis, and si-wu decoction, respectively. The results obtained in this work strongly indicate that the combination of GC-MS with chemometric local resolution methods could greatly improve the chromatographic separation ability by means of mathematical approaches. Moreover, they indicated the reliability and practicability of this combined technique.