Identification and quantification of steroidal saponins inpolygonatum species by HPLC/ESI/MS

An HPLC/ESI/MS method has been developed to identify and quantify the spirostanol glycosides in the rhizomes of fivePolygonatum species. The relative distribution of two steroidal saponins in each extract was established using the selective ion monitoring (SIM) modevia an electrospray ionization (ESI) source. It was found that there were significant differences in the amount of spirostanol glycosides among thePolygonatum species. The results showed that this method could be used to identify the steroidal saponins in the extracts and differentiatePolygonatum species with high sensitivity and reproducibility in a short time. Fragmentation patterns of the two reference compounds were also discussed with the electrospray ionization multi-stage tandem mass spectroscopy (ESI-MSn).