SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION OF SIX PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS IN GUANXIN II PRESCRIPTION BY HPLC/MS/MS

Abstract

An HPLC method coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (MS/MS) was applied to the determination of tanshinone IIA (TanllA), salvianolic acid B (SA-B), protocatechuic acid (PA), protocatechuic aldehyde (PAH), paeoniflorin (PF), and ferulic acid (FA) in Guanxinll prescription. These six compounds were analyzed simultaneously with YMC ODS-AQ column by using an aqueous mobile phase (containing 0.1% acetic acid) modified by methanol in a gradient program. The flow rate was 0.30 mL/min. Triple quadrupole mass spectrometry was optimized in both positive and negative ion multiple reaction monitoring modes for the simultaneous quantitative analysis of the two different types of active components by using a time-segment program. The method gave recoveries of 98.9–102.5% with relative standard deviations of 1.14–2.09% for the spiked herb samples. Limits of detection (LODs) ranged from 0.21 to 4.28 ng/mL and all the compounds showed good linearity in a relatively wide concentration range. The results indicated that HPLC-MS/MS provided rapid and sensitive analysis of six bioactive markers in GuanxinII prescription for quality control and authentication.