Quality Control of Chinese Medicines Using UPLC–MS

Quality control of Chinese medicines (CMs) is a difficult work because of their intrinsic complexity. UPLC-MS is at the forefront of this crucial challenge due to its prominent performance in qualitative and quantitative analysis. This chapter aims to explain UPLC-MS-based methodologies in the field of quality control for CMs, covering the basic principles of various instruments, and their specific applications in the characterization of chemical composition, screening, and quantification of chemical markers. Meanwhile, a description of some universal or integrated strategies (e.g., fingerprints, chemical markers’ knock-out, multivariate statistical analysis and quantitative analysis of multi-components by single marker) are also provided.