Cycloastragenol

Seeds of A. mongholicus were purchased from AnGuo Chinese Herbal Medicine Base in HeBei Province of China. Astragaloside IV, cycloastragenol, calycosin-7-O-β-d-glucoside, calycosin, ononin, formononetin, scutellarin (IS, internal standard) and sodium chloride were purchased from Chengdu Must Bio-technology Co., LTD. (Chengdu, China). Sodium chloride (NaCl) was of analytical reagent grade. Water used for the UPLC–MS/MS analysis was prepared with a Milli-Q water purification system procured from Millipore (Milford, MA, USA). Acetonitrile (J & K Scientific Ltd. Beijing, China) was of HPLC grade. All other chemicals used in the method were of analytical grade.

The 50% chlormequat aqueous solution was obtained from Sichuan Guoguang Agrochemical Co., Ltd. (Chengdu, China). The standard compound of chlormequat chloride (98.0%) was purchased from Agro-Environmental Protection Institute (Tianjin, China). Thirteen standard compounds (with purities all over 98.0% confirmed by HPLC-UV analysis), including astragaloside IV, astragaloside I, astragaloside II, astragaloside III, isoastragaloside II, isoastragaloside IV, cycloastragenol, methylnissolin-3-O-glucoside, astraisoflavan-7-O-β-d-glucoside, formononetin, ononin, calycosin, and calycosin-7-glucoside, were provided by Chengdu Must Bio-technology Co. Ltd. (Chengdu, China). HPLC-grade acetonitrile and methanol were sourced from Fisher Scientific (Fair Lawn, NJ, USA). Other reagents and chemicals were purchased from Sinopharm Chemical Regent Beijing Co., Ltd. (Beijing, China). Ultrapure water intended for HPLC-MS/MS analysis was obtained from a Milli-Q system (Merck Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA).

The 50% chlormequat aqueous solution was obtained from Sichuan Guoguang Agrochemical Co., Ltd. (Chengdu, China). The standard compound of chlormequat chloride (98.0%) was purchased from Agro-Environmental Protection Institute (Tianjin, China). Thirteen standard compounds (with purities all over 98.0% confirmed by HPLC-UV analysis), including astragaloside IV, astragaloside I, astragaloside II, astragaloside III, isoastragaloside II, isoastragaloside IV, cycloastragenol, methylnissolin-3-O-glucoside, astraisoflavan-7-O-β-d-glucoside, formononetin, ononin, calycosin, and calycosin-7-glucoside, were provided by Chengdu Must Bio-technology Co. Ltd. (Chengdu, China). HPLC-grade acetonitrile and methanol were sourced from Fisher Scientific (Fair Lawn, NJ, USA). Other reagents and chemicals were purchased from Sinopharm Chemical Regent Beijing Co., Ltd. (Beijing, China). Ultrapure water intended for HPLC-MS/MS analysis was obtained from a Milli-Q system (Merck Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA).