ABSTRACT
Objective::To establish an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) method for simultaneous determination of seven components(chlorogenic acid, 3, 5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, 1, 5-dicaffeoylquinic acid, kaempferol-3-O-rutinoside, quercetin, kaempferol and thymol) in blossoms of Inula nervosa, and provide references for its quality control. Method::The separation was performed on an Agilent Poroshell 120 C18 column (3.0 mm×100 mm, 2.7 μm) with 0.1% formic acid(A) and methyl (B)as mobile phase for gradient elution(0-4 min, 2%B; 4-6 min, 2%-5%B; 6-10 min, 5%-10%B; 10-20 min, 10%-20%B; 20-30 min, 20%-27%B; 30-37 min, 27%-25%B, 37-45 min, 25%-32%B; 45-68 min, 32%-58%B; 68-75 min, 58%-25%B; 75-82 min, 25%-2%B; 82-90 min, 2%B). The flow rate was 0.3 mL·min-1 and the detection wavelength was 254 nm. Result::There was a good linear relationship between the concentration and peak area of all the seven components in the investigated concentration range (r>0.999). The average recoveries ranged from 97.80% to 101.28% with RSD≤3.0%. Cluster analysis of SPSS software and principal component analysis of SIMCA software can be used to intuitively classify samples from four different origins. Conclusion::The established method is simple and fast with high precision, which can be used to compare the differences of blossoms of Inula nervosa from different origins and efficiently control its quality.