Characteristic Malonyl Ginsenosides from the Leaves of Panax notoginsengas Potential Quality Markers for Adulteration Detection

Due to the high price and limited supply of Panax notoginseng, a large number of samples adulterated with the leaves appear in the market. A group of new malonyl ginsenosides were exclusively detected in the P. notoginsengleaves (PNL). Targeted isolation of the malonyl ginsenosides was guided by UPLC-QDa MS. HRMS, 1D/2D NMR, and chemical methods were used for structural identification. A selected ion monitoring method was developed based on UPLC-QDa MS to detect the adulterations. In addition, the anti-inflammatory activities and the collision-induced dissociation features of the isolated saponins were studied. As a result, eight new 3-OH malonylated dammarane-type triterpene oligoglycosides (notoginsenosides L3-L10) were obtained from PNL. Adulteration with PNL can be easily detected with limit of detection as low as 0.06%. To sum up, the isolated ginsenosides can be used as quality markers for fraud detection, which will promote the quality control of the notoginseng products.