Simultaneous determination of five baicaleins in healthy product tablets by dispersive solid-phase extraction-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A method based on dispersive solid-phase extraction-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (DSPE-HPLC-MS/MS) was developed for the simultaneous determination of five analytes - scutellarein, 4'-hydroxywogonin, norwogonin, baicalein, and wogonin in healthy product tablets. The samples were extracted with 10 mL acetone and purified on 75 mg C-18. The types and dosages of the extracted solvents and adsorbents were optimized. The results showed that these five analytes exhibited good linear relationships in their respective linear ranges. The correlation coefficients (r) were more than 0.99. The detection limits and quantitative limits were 0.5-40 mu g/kg and 2.0-120 mu g/kg, respectively. Recovery tests were carried out using three kinds of health product tablet matrices. The concentrations were one, five, and ten times the quantitative limit. The average recovery of these five targets was 83.1% to 106.5%, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) ranging from 0.97% to 4.52%. This method is easy to operate, and it shows high sensitivity and good reproducibility. Thus, it is suitable for the simultaneous determination of the target compounds in health tablets.