Simultaneous Analysis of Seven Major Saponins in Compound Danshen Dropping Pills using Solid Phase Extraction and HPLC with DAD and ESI‐MS Detectors

Abstract

A simple and sensitive high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC‐DAD) method was established and validated to simultaneously quantify seven major saponins, i.e., notoginsenoside R1, ginsenoside Re, Rg1, Rb1, Rh1, Rg2 and Rd, in “Compound Danshen Dropping Pills” (DSDP), the best sold traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The method involved the solid‐phase extraction (SPE) and chromatographic separation on a reversed‐phase Agilent Zorbax SB‐C18 column. The mobile phase consisted of 0.01% acetic acid in water and 0.01% acetic acid in acetonitrile for gradient elution. The detection wavelength was 203 nm. Linearity (R2>0.994), intra‐ (R.S.D<2.05%) and inter‐day (R.S.D<3.24%) precision, and limit of quantification (0.011–0.054 mg/mL) were determined, and the recoveries of selected compounds were in the range of 90.06%–103.08% with RSD less than 4.3%. Subsequently, the method was employed to analyze commercial DSDP samples and frauds produced with inferior Radix Notoginseng. The results clearly demonstrated that the quality of the DSDP samples was closely related to plant materials and could be assessed by the proposed analytical method in conjunction with a chemometrics approach.