OBJECTIVE  To analyze the chemical components in different parts of Albizia julibrissin Durazz. and explore its medicinal resources based ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight-tandem mass spectrometry(UPLC-Q-TOF-MS) technology, while identifying differential markers to provide a scientific basis for quality control and resource utilization of Albizia julibrissin Durazz..

METHODS  The UPLC-Q-TOF-MS technique was used to qualitatively analyze the chemical constituents of different parts of Albizia julibrissin Durazz.(flower, leaf, root, bark and rice), to clarify the chemical substance basis of the five parts, and to visualize the distribution of each type of constituents in different parts of Albizia julibrissin Durazz. by using molecular networks. In addition, the chemical markers of different parts were obtained by screening through principal component analysis(PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA).

RESULTS  A total of 125 compounds were identified in different parts of Albizia julibrissin Durazz., with saponins, flavonoids, fatty acids, and lignans as the main substances. The components were most abundantly expressed in the flowers of Albizia julibrissin Durazz., followed by the bark and least in the roots. Moreover, compared with the other three medicinal parts, the barks of Albizia julibrissin Durazz. and the leaves of Albizia julibrissin Durazz. were each clustered into one group with obvious differences. OPLS-DA analysis result showed that 19 differential components could distinguish the different parts of Albizia julibrissin Durazz.. Further molecular network analysis showed that saponins, lignans, and fatty acid components were mainly concentrated in the barks of Albizia julibrissin Durazz., while flavonoids were concentrated in the flowers with leaves and rice.

CONCLUSION  In this study, the compositional differences and distributional characteristics of the chemical constituents in the five different medicinal parts of Albizia julibrissin Durazz. are obtained, which lays a foundation for future quality control, effector studies and further medicinal resources development and utilization of Albizia julibrissin Durazz..