Abstract
A simple, rapid and specific ultra-performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry method was developed for the analysis of 29 bioactive components (10 phenolic acids, 16 flavonoids, and three iridoid glycosides) in Yinhua Kanggan tablet (YHKGT), a herbal prescription used for treating upper respiratory infections, fevers, coughs and pharyngalgia. The separation was successfully achieved using a Waters Cortecs UPLC C18 column (50 × 2.1 mm, 1.6 μm) and gradient elution with water-0.1% formic acid and acetonitrile. Polarity switching mode was used in the optimization of multiple reaction monitoring conditions. The analytical method was validated for linearity, precision and accuracy. Calibration curves for the 29 marker compounds showed good linear regression (r > 0.9982). The limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) for the 29 analytes were in the range of 0.03–4.99 ng/mL and 0.16–14.87 ng/mL, respectively. The relative standard deviation (RSD) values of intra-day precision, inter-day precision, repeatability, and stability were less than 2.79%, 4.87%, 4.18% and 4.71%, respectively. The recoveries of the 29 marker compounds were in the range of 94.67%–104.78% (RSD ≤ 4.72%). These results have shown that this developed method was efficient for the quality evaluation of YHKGT.
Highlights
Herbal medicines have received great interest and have been used as an important part of health care in the anti-viral treatment field since they have relatively few side-effects compared to modern therapeutics [1]
A published paper has described a high performance liquid chromatographydiode-array detector (HPLC-DAD) method for the determination of the content of chlorogenic acid, one of the major components in Yinhua Kanggan tablet (YHKGT) [13], but the efficacy of YHKGT should be associated with the synergistic or interactive action of various types of compounds derived from its component herbs rather than only one of them
We have developed and validated for the first time a polarity switching ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (UPLC-QqQ-MS) method for the rapid simultaneous determination of 29 active components
Summary
Herbal medicines have received great interest and have been used as an important part of health care in the anti-viral treatment field since they have relatively few side-effects compared to modern therapeutics [1]. Previous studies have indicated that three types of compounds, including phenolic acids, flavonoids and iridoids, are responsible for the overall therapeutic effects of Jinyinhua as well as Mujinggen [3–9]. Herbal medicines are increasingly being understood and accepted by more and more people around the world, the problem of quality control remains one of the major obstacles for their internationalization. The aforementioned three types of active compounds of YHKGT should be selected for the quality control analysis
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