QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF 15 ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS IN JIWEILING FREEZE-DRIED POWDER BY HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY-TANDEM MASS SPECTROMETRY

Qualitative characterization and quantitative analysis of 15 bioactive constituents in Jiweiling freeze-dried powder (JWL) have been achieved by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry, including five flavonoids and ten ginsenosides. Chromatographic separation was performed on an Agilent ZORBAX Eclipse XDB-C18 HPLC column, with gradient elution of 0.1% formic acid aqueous solution and acetonitrile as mobile phase. The compounds were detected in the negative ion mode with multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) using a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer equipped with an electrospray ionization interface. By using of this method, 15 bioactive components were unequivocally identified on the basis of their characteristic fragmentation patterns. All calibration curves showed good linearity (r20.998) within the test ranges. The LOD, LOQ, specificity, precision, and accuracy for the method were validated. The proposed method was successfully applied to analyze the quality of 12 batches of JWL. The results indicated that this analytical method was simple and suitable for the identification and quality assessment of JWL.