Drying method is one of the important factors affecting quality of traditional Chinese medicine. To study the effect of shaded drying and hot air drying on steroidal saponins of Paridis Rhizoma (PR), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis was used to investigate the difference of Paris polyphylla var. chinensis (PPC) samples treated by different methods, and then, a rapid and reliable ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) method was established to quantitatively analyze the content change of ten steroidal saponins. Hot air drying at 50 ℃ could obviously improve the content of polyphyllin Ⅶ, 17-hydroxygracillin and polyphyllin H, which were major steroidal saponins in PPC. Based on that, the main component changes induced by different drying methods were further analyzed using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF-MS/MS), and the structural identification of varied components revealed that hot air drying could promote the transformation of proto-pennogenyl glycosides to pennogenyl glycosides. This phenomenon was also found in other plants of genus Paris rich in diosgenyl glycosides. The present study provided a useful method for improving quality of PR and valuable information for TCM containing steroidal saponins.

干燥方法是影响中药质量的重要因素之一。为了研究阴影干燥和重楼上羌活（PR）的甾体皂苷热风干燥的效果，高效液相色谱法（HPLC）分析用于研究的差滇变种。中华（PPC）样品采用不同方法处理，然后建立了一种快速可靠的超高效液相色谱（UPLC）方法，以定量分析10种甾体皂苷的含量变化。50℃热风干燥可以明显提高PPC中主要甾体皂苷类的多酚phyl，17-羟基香茅素和多酚H的含量。在此基础上，采用超高效液相色谱-四极杆飞行时间质谱（UPLC-QTOF-MS / MS）进一步分析了不同干燥方法引起的主要成分变化，并对不同成分进行了结构鉴定。揭示热风干燥可以促进原戊烯酰基糖苷向戊烯酰基糖苷的转化。在其他属植物中也发现了这种现象巴黎富含薯os二糖苷。本研究提供了一种有用的方法，以提高PR的质量和有价值的信息，中药含有类固醇皂苷。