Identification of lipophilic components in Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium cultivars by supercritical CO 2 fluid extraction with ultra‐high‐performance liquid chromatography–Q Exactive Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry

To systematically identify the lipophilic constituents of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium from different cultivars, supercritical CO2 fluid extraction and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-Q Exactive Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry were integrated for the component analysis of eighteen batches of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium from 12 cultivars for the first time. A total of 57 components from the supercritical CO2 fluid extracts were demonstrably or tentatively identified by the obtained parent peaks, fragment peaks, and retention times. In total, 2 flavonoids, 6 organic acids, 9 coumarins, 3 aldehydes, 7 esters, 3 terpenes, 1 limonoid, and 5 other compounds were detected for the first time; notably, coumarin components have not yet been reported in Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium. Furthermore, the extract constituents differed between cultivars. Especially, organic acids were more abundant in Citrus reticulata 'Chachi' than in other cultivars, and pterostilbene was exclusively found in Citrus reticulata 'Yichangju'. The results showed that a greater variety of compounds in Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium could be extracted by supercritical CO2 fluid extraction and detected by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-Q Exactive Orbitrap tandem mass spectrometry. This study provides a more scientific basis for further analysis of the pharmacological activity and quality of Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium components from different cultivars. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.