Medicinal carbohydrates from Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) have shown pharmacological properties such as antitumor, antivirus, and anti-inflammatory. However, the structures of these carbohydrates are challenging to characterize due to the large diversity in monosaccharide compositions and glycosidic linkages present. In this research, we present a comprehensive workflow for the characterization of the oligosaccharide and polysaccharide structures in 240 TCMs using monosaccharide, oligosaccharide, and glycosidic linkage analyses with advanced liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based methods. TCM samples underwent lyophilization, bullet blending, and sequential hot water extraction and ethanol precipitation. Both ethanol-soluble and insoluble fractions were analyzed for their monosaccharide compositions using a rapid-throughput UHPLC-QqQ MS method. After determining the monosaccharide profiles of all 240 samples, compositionally interesting TCM samples were then selected for further oligosaccharide and polysaccharide analyses. For oligosaccharide fractions, a semi-preparative method was directly applied to elucidate effluent fractions by coupling their monosaccharide and glycosidic linkage compositions using multiple LC-MS/MS based approaches. Polysaccharide fractions were first depolymerized into characteristic oligosaccharides fingerprints using Fenton’s chemistry along with commercially available polysaccharide standards to identify polysaccharide backbone present. Previous results have shown that this workflow is a powerful tool to elucidate the carbohydrate structures present in TCM samples. For example, glucomannan and starch were successfully found to be the primary structures in lily bulb utilizing this approach. Additionally, a total of 15 oligosaccharides from <i>Rehmannia glutinosa</i> were identified and characterized using this methodology. By applying this comprehensive workflow for analyzing medicinal carbohydrate for TCM samples, it could provide detailed structural information including their degree of polymerization, complete oligosaccharide structures, polysaccharide backbone structures. This novel glycomic library for TCM samples will aid in understanding their bioactivities and may lead to possible therapeutic interventions.

Comprehensive carbohydrate structure elucidation in 240 traditional Chinese medicines using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based methods

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