Ferulic acid

We obtained the nine batches of TSMT samples (S1-S9, No. 210401 ~ 210409) from Jiangsu Kanion Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (Jiangsu, China). These were prepared from eight herbal pieces, i.e., Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels (DG, danggui), Lonicera japonica Thunb. (JYH, jinyinhua), Codonopsis pilosula (Franch.) Nannf. (DS, dangshen), Scrophularia aestivalis Griseb (XS, xuanshen), Astragalus membranaceus (Fisch.) Bunge (HQ, huangqi), Achyranthes bidentata Bl. (NX, niuxi), Dendrobium nobile Lindl. (SH, shihu), and Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch. (GC, gancao) which were also checked with http://www.theplantlist.org on February 14, 2022. Next, we purchased 17 reference standards (RS) from Chengdu MUST Bio-Technology Co, Ltd (Chengdu, China), which included Astragaloside IV, Calycosin-7-glucoside, Atractylenolide II, Atractylenolide III, Ferulic acid, Senkyunolide I, Cynaroside, Chlorogenic acid, Luteolin, Harpagoside, Harpgide, Acteoside, β-Ecdysone, Ginsenoside Ro, Glycyrrhizic acid, Liquiritin, and Gallic acid. The purity of all the reference standards was over 98%. Mobile phases including the HPLC-grade acetonitrile, phosphoric acid, and formic acid were purchased from Thermo Fisher Scientific (Thermo scientific, USA).

Methanol, acetonitrile, and formic acid were of LC–MS grade, and 2-propanol was high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) grade. These chemicals were all purchased from Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc (Waltham, Massachusetts, United States). The ferulic acid (MW: 194.19, LOT: MUST-17010908, purity ≥98% HPLC)，caffeic acid (MW: 180.15, LOT: MUST-17010908, purity ≥98% HPLC), calycosin (MW: 284.26, LOT: MUST-14070923, purity ≥98% HPLC), and formononetin (MW: 268.26, LOT: MUST-14091205, purity ≥98% HPLC) were provided by Chengdu Must Bio-Technology Co. Ltd., Ligustilide (MW: 284.26, LOT: wkq-00246, purity ≥98% HPLC LOT: wkq-00246) was obtained from Sichuan Weikeqi Biological Technology Co., Ltd. Rat SOD, MDA, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-18, IL-6 and insulin ELISA Kits and ROS kit were all purchased from Shanghai Enzyme-linked Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
Danggui (the root of A. sinensis (Oliv.) Diels, Place of Origin: Gansu Province, Batch number: 259200103) and Huangqi (the root of Astragalus mongholicus Bge, Place of Origin: Inner Mongolia, Batch number: 190919001) were purchased from Beijing Tong Ren Tang Nanjing Pharmacy (Han Zhong Road, Nanjing, China). After purchase, the herbs were maintained in closed, lucifugal, and dry conditions at 23 ± 2°C.

The premature fruitlet of Citrus reticulata Blanco was collected from Xinhui District, Jiangmen, Guangdong Province in May 2020. After naturally sun dried, GQP were obtained and were identified by Professor Guodong Zheng. After that, GQP were conserved at the Laboratory of Pharmacognosy, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangdong Province, China.
The reference standards (purity >98%) were purchased from Chengdu Must Biotechnology. They were hesperidin, nobiletin, synephrine, ferulic acid, limonin, and tangeretin. The other standards (purity >98%), stachydrine and 3,5,6,7,8,3′,4′‐heptamethoxyflavone, were purchased from Weikeqi Biotechnology and 5‐hydroxy‐6,7,8,3′,4′‐pentamethoxyflavone was purchased from Nanjing Chunqiu Biological Engineering. Ultrapure water was available using a Milli‐Q system. The Chromatographic‐grade acetonitrile, hexane, and methanol were obtained from Honeywell International Inc., and formic acid was obtained from Thermo Fisher Scientific.