Available online 29 November 2023

An integrated strategy was established for chemical characterization of TBC.

UPLC-Q-TOF/MS and HPTLC/PAD-DESI-MSI were combined for chemical analysis of TBC.

Plausible chemical transformations were proposed and rationalized by DFT calculations.

Different chemical compositions could be clearly visualized by HPTLC/PAD-DESI-MSI.

© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Xi’an Jiaotong University.