Abstract: To evaluate the amino acid content in Asparagus cochinchinensis, an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method was established for the content determination and compositional analysis of 16 amino acids in Asparagus cochinchinensis samples from different origins. The samples were subjected to acid hydrolysis at （150±2）℃ for total amino acid extraction. Chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent InfinityLab Poroshell 120 HILIC-Z column (2.7 μm, 2.1 mm×100 mm), with the mobile phase consisting of 20 mmol/L ammonium formate aqueous solution (containing 0.25% formic acid, Phase A) and 20 mmol/L ammonium formate acetonitrile solution (containing 0.25% formic acid, Phase B). For mass spectrometric detection, an electrospray ionization (ESI) source coupled with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode was adopted. The results showed that the total amino acid content varied significantly among Asparagus cochinchinensis samples from different origins, while the proportion of most amino acids remained relatively consistent. Among these amino acids, glutamic acid, aspartic acid and arginine accounted for the highest proportions, whereas methionine and tyrosine contents were relatively low. The amino acid content of Asparagus cochinchinensis was significantly affected by the producing area and generally increased with the increase of individual medicinal material size. This established method was stable, reliable and highly sensitive, which could be applied to the quantitative analysis of amino acids in Asparagus cochinchinensis, thus providing scientific support for the quality evaluation and rational resource development of this medicinal material.

Key words: Asparagus cochinchinensis, amino acids, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), quality evaluation