Abstract: Objective To examine the physicochemical properties and principal components and develop a quick and simple quality control method for comprehensively evaluating the quality of Wudang Taoist ink and improving its quality stability. Methods By consulting the 2020 edition of Chinese Pharmacopoeia and analyzing the prescription of Wudang Taoist ink combined with the knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine formulae. At the same time, the physical constants, total polysaccharides, total flavonoids and volatile oil contents of Wudang Taoist ink were determined by physical method and titration analysis. The solvent type, extraction time, extraction times and extraction temperature were investigated and selected to extract and separate the polar and soluble components in Wudang Taoist ink. The soluble components were identified by HPLC method combined with HPLC-MS in MRM mode of mass spectrum, several peaks with large peak area were identified. Finally, four kinds of alkaloids, neoaconitine, aconitine, hypaconitine and strychnine were determined by HPLC method. Results The 42 medicinal herbs in Wudang Taoist ink prescription were mainly based on their warm, cold nature and their pungent, bitter taste. The main meridians were Ganjing and Xinjing, mainly ascending, floating. There were 11 flavors of toxic herbs. The main effects were the swelling detoxification, drainaging of pus to relieve pain, clearing heat and blood circulation to remove blood stasis. The physical and chemical analysis results showed that Wudang Taoist ink had soft texture, with a density of 1.416 g/cm³, and the melting range of 47-77 ℃, the acidity value of 8.03. The contents of polysaccharide and volatile oil were 61.75 μg/g and 0.04 mL/mg. The optimized extraction solvent was methanol-water(1∶1, v/v), the extraction time was 30 min, the extraction times was once, and the extraction temperature was 90℃. Under these conditions the extraction solution was prepared and blown dry with nitrogen and redissolved and then 20 μL was injected into HPLC. The results showed that 28 chromatographic peaks were detected, the ferulic acid, paeonol, acacia, monosinand and other components were confirmed to have the highest content. Conclusion The flavor, meridian tropism and positive components of Wudang Taoist ink are preliminarily found out, and the relationships between components and pharmacological effects are explained, which provides ideas for establishing quality analysis methods of Wudang Taoist ink.

Key words: Wudang Taoist ink, extraction and separation, physical and chemical constants, content determination, quality control